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After the portrait by Gilbert Stuart in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. 



A HISTORY OF THE 
UNITED STATES 



BY 

HENRY ELDRIDGE BOURNE 

M 

AND 

ELBERT JAY BENTON 

PROFESSORS OF HISTORY IN WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY 



D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 






BY BOURNE AND BENTON 



INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY 

Presents the course recommended for the sixth grade by the 
Committee of Eight of the American Historical Association. 
Cloth. 271 pages. Maps and illustrations. 

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Gives prominence to the life and industries of the people, 
and to the development of the nation. Cloth. 598 pages. 
Maps and illustrations. 



D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 



Copyright, 1913 and 1919, by 
D. C. Heath & Company 

iFg 



AUG II Ibid 

©CI.A529527 



I 



PREFACE 

This textbook is based on the plan of study recommended for 
the seventh and eighth grades by the Committee of Eight of the 
American Historical Association. The work for the sixth grade 
has been given in a shorter book, entitled Introductory American 
History. About two-thirds of that book concern the beginnings 
in Great Britain and Europe of the civilization which the people 
of the United States share with other peoples of European race. 
The remainder contains descriptions of the discoveries and early 
settlements of America, principally in the sixteenth century. 
This volume for the upper grades opens with a chapter which 
repeats briefly the story of early discovery and settlement. The 
chapter may be used as a review in those schools which use the 
Introductory American History. Teachers who do not use that 
book will find in the chapter the essential facts of the period. 

American history is so rich and varied that the most serious ques- 
tion which confronts the authors of a textbook is that of selection 
and emphasis. If space is to be found for adequate treat- 
ment of the most characteristic features of our national develop- 
ment, especially of those within the comprehension of the pupil 
of the seventh or eighth grade, certain phases of the political and 
military history of the country must be reserved for later study. 

The two great facts which the authors have emphasized in order 
to give unity to their treatment are (i) the migration of people 
from many different nations to America, and (2) the westward 
movement in America. Another fact emphasized is the effort 
of the settlers to reproduce in this country the ways of living to 
which they were accustomed at home. Their success in organiz- 
ing civilized life over so vast an area in three or four centuries 
has been a work the magnitude of which may well awaken the 
interest of every pupil. 

The geographical setting of American history has been kept con- 
stantly in mind. The pupil should be made to realize the impor- 
tance of geographical facts in the development of civilization and 
especially in the history of the United States. He has been study- 
ing geography for several years and should discover that his work 



iv PREFACE 

is of immediate utility in the study of a kindred subject. Certain 
great movements, like the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, 
cannot be understood without an appreciation of their geograph- 
ical setting. Geography and chronology have been called "the 
two eyes of history," but date lists are often emphasized far more 
than geographical conditions. In the Civil War the geographical 
features of Virginia and of the Mississippi Valley were determin- 
ing factors, and were always noted by the leaders. It is obvious 
that such facts must form the basis of the class-room study of 
the war. What is true of that war is equally true of other move- 
ments. The teacher will note the emphasis upon geographical 
facts in chapter iii, Exploring the Mississippi Valley; chapter 
viii, Dutch and English Rivalries; chapter x, The French Rivals, 
as well as in the chapters on the wars. 

In selecting the characteristic incidents which should be 
described the authors have again kept in mind the experience 
of the pupil. Only the simpler features of political institutions 
and controversies have been touched, while special attention has 
been given to occupations, industry, trade, manners, and customs. 

The European background, that is, the history of Great Brit- 
ain and Europe, has been explained whenever it furnishes a key to 
an understanding of events in America which were the direct out- 
growth of events in the Old World. The point of view is Amer- 
ican and the amount of European history included is necessarily 
small. The teacher can readily supplement what is contained 
in the text. 

The appendix gives a summary of the principal political events, 
with the names of Presidents and Vice-Presidents, and of defeated 
candidates for the Presidency, the dates of the admission of states, 
with their area and population. 

The authors wish to express their thanks to those who have 
aided them with helpful criticisms. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I Discoverers and Explorers i 

II Gaining a Foothold on the Atlantic Shore . . 17 

III Exploring the Mississippi Valley 27 

IV The Founding of Virginia 39 

V The Exiles for Conscience Sake at Plymouth . 49 

VI The Beginnings of New England 59 

VII Maryland, A Refuge for English Catholics . 71 

VIII Dutch and English Rivalries: Beginnings of a 

Great State 77 

EX A Second Great Emigration 87 

X The French Rivals 99 

XI The Making of New Frontiers in 

XII How the Colonists Lived 121 

XIII How the Colonies Were Governed .... 139 

XIV Conquest of the French Colonies in America 148 
XV Why the English Colonists Became Revolu- 
tionists 164 

XVI The Outbreak of War 178 

XVII The Birth of a New Nation 189 

XVLII Life in War Time 203 

XIX How the French Helped the Colonists . . . 213 

XX The Difficulties of the New Republic . . . 225 

XXI Starting the New Government 238 

XXII The United States and Europe . . . . . 250 

XXIII Rule of Jefferson: A New West 263 

XXIV The United States and the Napoleonic Wars . 276 
XXV The War of 1812 286 

XXVI New Work and New Routes 297 

XXVII The March of Population Westward . . . 310 

XXVIII Government by the People 323 

XXLX Problems of the New Democracy 331 

XXX Neighboring Countries Bring on New Ques- 
tions 345 

XXXI How the United States Won the Pacific Coast 354 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXXII A Great Domain, New Tools, and Willing Hands 363 

XXXIII The Question of Slavery 376 

XXXIV A Divided Nation 390 

XXXV The Beginning of Civil War . . . . . 400 

XXXVI Story of Victory and Defeat 412 

XXXVII Conquering a Peace 425 

XXXVIII Peace and its Problems 433 

XXXIX Neighbors and Rivals 446 

XL The Prairie States 454 

XLI New Methods of Working 463 

XLII The New South 475 

XLIII The Last Barriers 483 

XLIV Laborers of a Great Nation 491 

XLV New Methods of Government 500 

XL VI The New Education 513 

XL VII The Republic and the Larger World . . 522 

XL VIII The Great War in Europe .... 532 

XLIX The United States in the World War . . . 549 
Appendix 

Chronological Summary of American Political History . i 

Population at the Beginning of the Period of Independence x 

Area and Population of the States and Territories ... x 

Population of the United States by Races xii 

Place of Birth of Present Population xii 

Cities of the United States with Population over 200,000 . xii 

Population of Countries of Europe xiii 

Progress of Education xiv 

Waste of Wealth in the United States xiv 

Declaration of Independence xv 

Constitution of the United States xviii 

Index xxxi 



LIST OF MAPS 

PAGE 

Map of the World, showing the United States and its Possessions 

cover page 2 

A Globe made before Columbus Discovered America .... 4 

Map of the New World 6 

The New World according to a Map-Maker of 1 540 .... 9 

Map showing Five Famous Voyages of Exploration 15 

Supposed Extent of North America 17 

Parts of North America Occupied or Explored, about 1650 . 25 

The Great Mountain Barrier back of the English Settlements 27 
Map showing Natural Features and Native Tribes of the United 

States between 30 and 31 

Map of La Salle's Explorations 36 

Map of Virginia 4° 

Captain John Smith's Map of New England 53 

Plymouth Harbor 54 

Country about Massachusetts Bay 62 

Country about Narragansett Bay 64 

New England in the Seventeenth Century 67 

Early Settlements in Maryland 73 

New Netherland in 1655 — According to the Dutch 81 

West Indies 88 

The Middle Colonies 92 

The Carolina Coast . 95 

Charleston Harbor 96 

Map of Portages in New France and the Illinois Country . 107 

Where the German and Scotch-Irish Emigrants Settled . . . 114 

Settlements in Georgia 118 

Eastern North America at the Beginning of the French and Indian 

War 149 

The Ohio Country and the New French Forts 151 

Route of Braddock's Expedition i55 

The British Territory in 1763 161 

Boston, Bunker Hill, and Charlestown 183 

Reference Map for the Revolution — Northern and Middle States 

facing 196 



viii LIST OF MAPS 

PAGE 

New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania 198 

Mountain Trails and the Western Country 208 

Reference Map for the Revolution — Southern States facing 218 

Cornwallis's Wandering Campaign at the South 219 

Our Country in 1783 225 

Land Claims of the Thirteen Original States .... facing 232 

The Northwest Territory after Wayne's Victory 247 

The Louisiana Purchase 267 

Lewis and Clark's Route 270 

The United States in 1810-1 2 facing 272 

Pike's Route 273 

Europe at the Height of Napoleon's Power 284 

Lake Erie and the Surrounding Country 288 

Route of the National Road, 181 2-1840 305 

Map of the Erie Canal 307 

The United States in 1820, showing the Missouri Compromise. . 317 

The United States in 1825 between 322 and 323 

Map showing the Disputed Boundary of Maine ^^ 

The Republic of Texas 347 

The Principal Western Trails 350 

The Oregon Compromise 356 

Map of the Mexican War 357 

Territory acquired from Mexico as the Result of the War facing 358 
Railroads in Operation in the Northern States in i860 .... 364 
Territories from which Kansas and Nebraska were erected . . . 382 

The United States in 186 1 facing 392 

Map of Forts in Charleston Harbor 395 

Railroads and Navigable Waterways of the South, 1861 . . . 401 

Map of Campaigns in Virginia 408 

The Line of Defense in January, 1862 412 

Reference Map for the Civil War, 1861-1865 . between 414 and 415 

The United States, Canada, and Mexico 449 

Territorial Growth of the United States, 1783-1867 between 450 and 451 

Principal Railroads West of the Mississippi in 1884 454 

The Cross-Roads of the Pacific 525 

Relief Map of the Panama Canal 527 

Map showing the Effect of the Panama Canal on Trade Routes . 528 
Map of the United States and its Possessions . . cover page 3 



HISTORY OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

CHAPTER I 

DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

The Work of Three Centuries. — Three hundred years ago 
the whole of the United States was forest, prairie, and desert, 
the haunt of wild animals and Indians. Today nearly 
the whole country is settled. Highways and railroads extend 
in all directions. Farms and factories, schools and churches, 
libraries and theatres are found everywhere. What a great 
work to have been done in that time! If it had meant 
just cutting down trees, building houses, clearing the fields 
for crops, and making roads, that would have been a task big 
enough, but that is only a small part of what has been done. 
The settlers wanted to live as their fathers had lived in 
England and on the Continent. This meant more work. 
As new inventions were made, or better ways of living were 
found, either in Europe or America, these were carried wher- 
ever the settlers went. All this work has been done not 
only by the early settlers, their children, and their children's 
children, but also by later emigrants. 1 

1 The word " emigrants," rather than " immigrants," is used here and in the 
chapters which follow as long as the principal thought is movement from 
Europe to America. When the colonies become the United States, the point 
of view is reversed. In treating the later movements from Europe, therefore, 
the word " immigrants " will be used. 



2 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

What the Early Settlers had and what they did not have. 
— The earlier settlers might have done some of their work 
more rapidly if they had had the machines which men have 
since learned to make, like the steam shovel, the locomotive, 
and the electric motor. But they were much better off 
than the Indians that they found in America. Their ships 
were strong enough to withstand the storms of the Atlantic. 
They could fight against their enemies with guns and cannon. 
They had also many good tools which they had learned to use 
in their European homes. They not only understood how to 
fight better than the Indians, but they had also learned to 
govern themselves wisely, and had brought with them many 
just laws and excellent customs. To understand just what 
sort of people they were, it is necessary to study the history of 
the countries from which they came. Some of the things which 
they knew they owed to the Greeks and the Romans, who 
lived in Ancient Times. 1 Others they owed to the men of the 
Middle Ages in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. 

Three Great Discoveries. — The earliest period in American 
history is commonly called the Period of Discovery. It is 
not necessary to describe in detail the events of that period; 
it will be enough to state briefly the main facts. 2 The most 
important voyages of that period were made by Bartholomew 
Diaz, Christopher Columbus, and Ferdinand Magellan. All 
three were in search of a route to the Indies, the Golden East 
about which Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler, had told the 
world. Europeans had usually obtained from the Venetians 
the spices, drugs, and silks of India, China, and of the 
islands off the coast of Asia. The Venetians purchased them 

1 Ancient Times include the early history of Europe down to the fall 
of the Roman Empire about 400 a.d. The Middle Ages follow down to 
the time of Columbus. 

2 See Introductory American History for a fuller account of the discoveries 
and of the events which led to them. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 



in the eastern Mediterranean, at ports where the ancient cara- 
van routes from the East ended. In the time of Columbus 
it was becoming dangerous, on account of the wars, to bring 
eastern goods overland, and all the bolder sailors were eager 
to find a sea route to the Indies. 

Bartholomew Diaz. — Diaz was a Portuguese captain. 
Many Portuguese before him had attempted to go far enough 
down the coast of Africa 
to find the southern point, 
and, passing it, turn north- 
ward again toward India. 
He was successful in 1487, 
although he did not reach 
India. As he had shown 
the way, another Portu- 
guese captain, Vasco da 
Gama, eleven years later 
reached India and brought 
back to Portugal a rich 
cargo of spices. 

Christopher Columbus. — Meanwhile Columbus, a Genoese 
sailor, who had once been in the service of Portugal, but now 
was in the service of Spain, formed a still more venturesome 
plan. He believed that he could find his way to spice-bearing 
islands, and even to the coasts of China and Japan, by sailing 
westward across the Atlantic. Many sailors in those days 
feared the Atlantic as a "Sea of Darkness" full of dread- 
ful monsters, but Columbus had been on voyages with the 
great sea-captains of Genoa and Portugal, and no longer 
dreaded to go far out of sight of land. 

A Famous Voyage. — With three small ships Columbus 
left Spain on August 3, 1492. He visited the Canary Islands, 
and on September 6 turned the prows of his ships due west 
into the wide and unknown Atlantic. Columbus thought 




Christopher Columbus 
From a painting in the Marine Museum, Madrid 



4 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

the earth smaller than it really is, and therefore that a 
voyage to the coast of Asia would be short. He also imag- 
ined that the Atlantic would contain many islands which 
he would find on the voyage. At first all went well, for the 
winds blew steadily from the east, wafting the ships along. 
But as the days passed, the sailors began to wonder how they 




A Globe made before Columbus 
Discovered America 

This globe was made in Nuremberg in 1402, and is still preserved. 
It shows the Atlantic Ocean as Columbus thought of it 

could return against those winds. Columbus sometimes had 
great difficulty in keeping them from open mutiny. For 
nearly five weeks he kept sailing westward. He encouraged 
the sailors by promises of a prize to the one who should first 
see land. Signs of land finally appeared, and on October 1 2 
a small island was discovered. Columbus named it San 
Salvador. It was probably the present Watling Island. 
Columbus soon found many islands on every side. When 
he came upon a large body of land which the Indians called 
Cuba, he sent two messengers to search for the emperor of 
China, who, he thought, must live near. He was bitterly 



A FAMOUS VOYAGE 5 

disappointed when they found neither an emperor, nor cities, 
nor gold, nor even spices. 

Misfortunes of Columbus. — However, when Columbus 
returned to Spain he was received with great rejoicing and 
was honored by the king and queen. He made three other 
voyages to America, discovering other islands in the West 
Indies and parts of the coast of South and Central America. 




Caravels of Columbus 

After the model shown at the Columbian Exposition, 
Chicago, 1893 

As he failed to gain great riches for himself or his followers, 
he became unpopular. Once he was taken back to Spain 
in chains like a common prisoner. Though his last days 
were saddened by misfortune, every one now regards him as 
the greatest of the discoverers. He had done more than 
start the search for another way to India — he had also 
started the exploration of a New World. 

Discovery of the South Sea. — In 15 13, seven years after 
the death of Columbus, a Spanish planter, named Balboa, 
discovered the Pacific Ocean, which Columbus had not even 
seen. Balboa and his followers marched from the shore of 
the Caribbean Sea through the dense forests of the Isthmus 



6 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

of Panama, taking twenty-two days to go forty-five miles. 
From the hill-tops they finally discovered a vast sea stretch- 
ing south and west. Balboa called it the South Sea, and 
this name was much used. The ocean which Balboa saw, 
Magellan soon afterward crossed. 




Map of the New World 
Made after the discoveries of Columbus and Balboa 

Ferdinand Magellan. — Magellan was a Portuguese like 
Diaz and Da Gama, but like Columbus he had entered the 
service of the king of Spain. His object was to find a route 
to the Indies past the great continent which lay across 
the way that Columbus had chosen. The Portuguese were 
already trading not only in India, but also in the Spice Islands, 
and Magellan became familiar with that region while in their 
service. He sailed from Spain in 15 19 with five ships, and 
spent a year in searching the coast of South America for a 
passage into the ocean on the other side. At last he made 
his way through the strait since named for him, the Strait of 
Magellan, and sailed out into the Pacific or Peaceful Sea. 
His task was now to cross the Pacific, which was wider 



THE NAMING OF AMERICA 



than he supposed. He succeeded, although his men suffered 

terribly before they reached the Ladrone Islands, where they 

obtained a supply of food. Soon afterward he reached the 

Philippines, but was killed in a fight with the natives. One 

of his ships found its way back to Spain by sailing around the 

Cape of Good Hope. Although 

Magellan died before the voyage 

was ended, the fame and honor of 

having sailed around the world, and 

having proved that America is not 

a part of Asia, but separated from 

it by a great ocean, belongs to him. 

The route to the Indies which he 

discovered was, however, not as 

convenient as that followed by Diaz 

and Da Gama. 

The Naming of America. — It 
seems strange that America was 

not named for Columbus. A great Magellan Monument on 
river, many cities in the United Mactan Island 

States, the District of Columbia, in ™!^ ^T*? marks t -,^ 

> spot where Magellan was killed 

which Washington is situated, and in a battle with the natives of the 
„ , , . . 11 ! Philippine Islands 

a country m South America, called 

the United States of Colombia, are named for him, but the 
American continents were named for another explorer, Ameri- 
cus Vespucius. Americus wrote about his discoveries much 
more than Columbus did. The people of the day either did 
not know what Columbus had done, or had forgotten it. One 
of them who was writing a geography suggested that the new 
lands be named for Americus. This was copied from one 
geography into another until everybody began to call the 
new continents America. 

A Passage to the South Sea. — When the early voyagers 
learned that America was not merely a group of islands off 




8 



DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 




View of the "South Sea' 



from Panama 



the coast of Asia, they wished to explore it, partly to find a 
passage to the South Sea nearer than the Strait of Magellan, 
and partly to find gold, silver, precious stones, and other treas- 
ures which 
they heard 
about con- 
t i n u all y . 
Some of these 
explorers ac- 
complished 
great things, 
while others 
were disap- 
pointed. 

Cortes, Conqueror of Mexico. — Two explorers were also 
conquerors. They were Cortes and Pizarro. A chief named 
Montezuma reigned in Mexico at that time over a people 
called the Aztecs. Montezuma had treasures of silver and 
gold in the city of Mexico, and these Cortes undertook to 
capture. After fighting for two years he was victorious. He 
then ruled over the country in the name of the Spanish king. 
Pizarro, Conqueror of Peru. — Pizarro did in Peru what 
Cortes had done in Mexico. The booty which the Spaniards 
seized in Peru was greater than they found in Mexico, amount- 
ing to nearly seven million dollars in gold, besides a great 
quantity of silver. The mines of Peru, as well as of Mexico, 
were very rich, and the Spaniards were able to send silver 
and gold home to Spain. 

De Soto, Discoverer of the Mississippi. — Two other 
Spanish leaders were not so successful. They were De Soto, 
the governor of Cuba, and Coronado, a friend of the viceroy, 
or governor, of Mexico. In 1539 De Soto crossed over from 
Cuba to Florida, which was also a part of his dominions. 
He had heard tales of a country rich in gold mines, whose king 



DE SOTO 9 

was sprinkled every morning with powdered gold, and he 
brought together a large band of followers in order to search 
for this Gilded Man or El Dorado. The army wandered for 
four years, much of the time in a half-starved condition, over 
a region now lying within eight southern states. They treated 



.-^V^-.-5^:>.--- 




The New World according to a Map-Maker of 1540 



the Indians cruelly and were repeatedly attacked by them. In 
these battles the Spaniards lost most of their baggage. It 
became necessary for them to use the skins of wild animals 
for clothing. Finally they discovered a great river which the 
Indians called the Mississippi. For another year the ex- 
plorers wandered west of the Mississippi through the almost 
endless forests and swamps now within Arkansas. Here, 
worn out by hardships and ill with malarial fever, De Soto 
died, and was buried secretly in the waters of the Mis- 
sissippi. His followers were afraid that the Indians, if they 



IO 



DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 



knew of the death of the leader, would murder the whole 
band. The explorers sought in vain for rich treasures 
such as Cortes had found in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru. 
Scarcely half of the original six hundred survived. The 
remnant of the once fine army built boats and floated down 

the Mississippi and found 
their way to Mexico. 

Coronado, Explorer of 
the Southwest. — Coro- 
nado and De Soto at one 
time nearly met on the 
plains west of the Missis- 
sippi. Coronado started 
in 1540 from western Mex- 
ico, near the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia. He planned to find 
the Seven Cities of Cibola, 
which he hoped would be 
as full of rich booty as 
Mexico or Peru. But the 
Seven Cities of Cibola existed only in the imagination of the 
Spaniards, who believed that centuries before seven Spanish 
bishops, fleeing before their heathen enemies, had crossed 
the ocean and built seven great cities. The only cities that 
Coronado found were the pueblos of the Indians — groups 
of houses made of stone and sun-dried clay. Coronado's 
army did not give up its search until it reached the region 
now included in Kansas. This was in 1541, when De Soto 
was distant only nine days' march. They then turned back, 
a sadly disappointed band of men. 

St. Augustine, the Oldest Town in the United States. — 
None of Coronado's or De Soto's followers cared to settle in 
the lands which they had explored. They had not found that 
for which they were looking. The principal Spanish settle- 




Palisaded Indian Village 
After a drawing made in 1585 



ST. AUGUSTINE 



ii 




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tV' '''■:';{ -;"V 



m 






ments for many years were in Mexico, Peru, and Cuba. 
About twenty years after De Soto's expedition the Spanish 
king sent Menendez to Florida to found settlements. In 
order to succeed he was obliged to drive away the French, 
who had recently built a fort near the mouth of the St. John's 
River. Menendez 
had another reason 
for attacking them ; 
he was a Roman 
Catholic and they 
were Protestants. 
Most Frenchmen 
were Catholics, but 
these men were 
Protestants. In 
those days Catho- 
lics and Protes- 
tants could not live 
peaceably together. 
The French called 
the settlement Fort 
Caroline, 1 after the 
king who reigned in 

France. In the battles which took place Menendez was 
successful, and he either killed or drove away all the French. 
The settlement which he founded in 1565 was called St. Au- 
gustine, and it is the oldest town in the United States. 

Spanish Emigrants and Indians. — The king of Spain did 
not encourage his people to cross the Atlantic to his new lands, 
and the result was that the settlements grew slowly. But 
by the year 1600 about 200,000 Spaniards were living in 
America. Besides, there were 5,000,000 Indians on the main- 
land, many of whom they had taught to live like Christian 

1 Named for King Charles, whose name in Latin was Carolus. 




The Old City Gate at St. Augustine 



12 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

men and women. Many of these Indians were gathered in 
villages or "missions," where they were taught by priests or 
monks. Unfortunately, most of the Indians in the islands 
of the West Indies soon died from disease and from the hard 
work which the early Spanish planters and gold-seekers had 
compelled them to do. To take their places the Spaniards 
had begun to carry negro slaves over from Africa. 







The Lachine Rapids of the St. Lawrence 

The rapids which stopped Carrier's voyage and convinced him that the St. Lawrence 
was not a passage way through to the Pacific Ocean 

First French Attempts at Settlement. — Fort Caroline 
was not the only settlement that the French had attempted 
to make. Thirty years earlier, in 1534, Jacques Carrier had 
explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and found the St. Lawrence 
River. In the following year he sailed nearly 400 miles up 
the great river until the Lachine or China Rapids blocked 
his way. Six years later he returned with a band of settlers, 
but the intense cold and danger from the Indians made them 
anxious to return to France. So the colony was given up. 

First English Attempts. — The English had also tried to 
make settlements in America. In 1497, while Columbus was 
still living, John Cabot, another Italian, obtained a ship 



FRENCH AND ENGLISH EXPLORERS 



13 



from the English king and sailed westward across the stormy- 
North Atlantic. He reached the coast of North America, 
but just where is not known, except that it was in the region 
of Nova Scotia or Labrador. For many years the English 
seemed to forget about the lands which he had discovered and 
claimed for the king of England. 

But English sailors watched the Spaniards in the West 
Indies and in America, and envied them the riches they were 







Scene on the Coast of Labrador 
A floating iceberg in the distance 

gaining. During this period also England and Spain were 
fast becoming enemies. Occasionally an English captain 
would plunder Spanish ships or towns just as if he was a 
pirate. The most famous captain in England'at this time 
was Francis Drake, who sailed into the Pacific Ocean, robbed 
Spanish ships off the coast of South America, and finally 
found his way back to England by the route which Magellan's 
sailors had followed. Queen Elizabeth made him a knight 
to reward him for his success. , 

Another Englishman, Sir Walter Raleigh, made several 
attempts to plant a colony on the coast of what is now North 
Carolina. He called the region Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, 



i 4 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

the "Virgin Queen." One of these colonies, led by John 
White in 1587, was made up of about 150 persons, including 
25 women and children. While White was in England seek- 
ing to obtain supplies and aid for the colony, the settlers were 
either scattered or murdered by the Indians. No trace of 
them was ever found. 

A Century's Success. — Thus, at the end of a century of 
discovery and exploration, only one settlement, St. Augus- 
tine, existed within the present limits of the United States. 
But the knowledge of the earth had been wonderfully in- 
creased. It was certain also that in a few years the men of 
western Europe — English, Dutch, French, and Spaniards — 
would rival one another in founding settlements. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What great work has been done by Americans in three hundred years 
of history? 

2. In what ways were the explorers and early settlers better off than the 
Indians? 

3. Where did the early emigrants to America obtain their knowledge? 

4. Who were the three greatest discoverers? Why did they make their 
voyages? 

5. Why was America named for Americus Vespucius rather than for 
Columbus? 

6. Who conquered Mexico? What other Indian country was conquered 
at about the same time? 

7. What portions of the United States did De Soto explore? Coronado? 
What settlement did the Spaniards later make in North America? 

8. How did the Spaniards treat the Indians? Who took the place, of the 
Indians in the West Indian Islands as laborers for the Spaniards? 

9. What part of North America did the French explore? Who was their 
first great explorer? Why did he go up the St. Lawrence? Where did he 
attempt to settle? Why did he fail? 

10. What part of North America did the English explore? Who were their 
explorers? Where did the English attempt to settle? Why did they fail? 
» 

EXERCISES 

1. Make a list of the tools and machines which settlers had three hundred 
years ago and which we have now. 



FIVE FAMOUS VOYAGES 



15 



77^ 







i6 



DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 



2. Prepare a list of the principal explorers and conquerors in the period of 
discoveries, with the places which they discovered or conquered, and the dates. 

3. Study the maps of this chapter for the effect of discoveries and 
explorations on the knowledge of the New World. Make on the blackboard 
or in a notebook a copy of Behaim's globe, page 4; add coast lines and 
countries discovered or explored by Columbus, Magellan, De Soto, Coronado, 
Cabot, and Cartier, in order to show the growth of knowledge as a result of 
their combined work. 

Important Dates: 

1492. The discovery of America by Columbus. 

1521. One of Magellan's ships completes the first voyage around the 

world. 
1 541. The discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto. 
1565. The founding of St. Augustine. 

Readings : A list of readings is given at the end of the book. 



^cemwra 




SHrp of 149: 



CHAPTER II 



GAINING A FOOTHOLD ON THE ATLANTIC SHORE 

Unexplored America. — In 1600 most of the region now 
included in the United States was not even explored. The 
followers of the unfortunate De Soto had floated down the 
Mississippi to its mouth, 



SOUTH SEA 

OR 

PACIFIC 

OCEAN 



and Coronado had marched 
over much of the South- 
west, but neither they nor 
the other Spanish adven- 
turers attempted to explore 
the region thoroughly. 
The French had gone no 
further than the Lachine 
Rapids on the St. Law- 
rence. The vast plains and 
forests of the upper Mis- 
sissippi Valley had not been 
seen by white men. And 
yet these lands were a prize 
richer than Mexico or Peru, 
not because of silver and 
gold in the treasure- 
houses of imaginary cities, 

ill Map showing where the English, Dutch, 

but because of the wealth and French explorers of about 1600 ex- 
Of Soil, forest, and mine, P^ted to find the South Sea or Pacific Ocean 

which would some day give work to millions of men and 
women. 




Supposed Extent of North America 



1 8 SETTLEMENTS ON THE ATLANTIC SHORE 

The Rivals of the Spaniards. — When the new century 
opened the Spaniards were less able to struggle for the prize 
than in the days of Cortes, De Soto, and Coronado. It is 
true that they had conquered Portugal, and that their king 
now possessed the rich colonies which the Portuguese captains 
had founded in the East Indies. But at the same time the 
Spaniards had wasted much money and many lives in a quar- 
rel with the Dutch, who were once Spain's loyal subjects. 
The Dutch were hardy sailors and were not afraid to attack 
Spanish ships. Indeed, they were usually victorious in such 
battles. The English also had a strong fleet and had in 1588 
nearly destroyed the "Invincible Armada," the largest fleet 
the Spaniards ever had. France was another dangerous rival 
of Spain, especially under her new king, Henry of Navarre, 
the first of the Bourbon line of kings, who would not allow 
the Spaniards to treat French settlements as Menendez did. 

Hindrances to Spanish Success. — Another thing hindered 
the Spaniards. Their king considered the colonies his own 
possessions, and no one could go to them without his consent. 
He was especially anxious to prevent any but steadfast Roman 
Catholic Christians from going. The ships for America set 
out always from a single port, at first Seville and later Cadiz. 
They were obliged to wait until there were enough to form 
a fleet. The enterprising seamen and merchants of other 
countries were hindered by no such restraints. Although the 
kings of England and of France considered newly discovered 
lands their possessions, they were willing to give any man, 
or any group of men, rich enough to fit out an expedition, per- 
mission to make settlements, to trade with the natives, and, 
sometimes, even to make war on rivals. The Dutch also 
acted in the same way. 

East India Companies. — Queen Elizabeth, in 1600, 
granted such a permission, called a charter, to the East 
India Company, which was to trade beyond the Cape of 



SPANISH, DUTCH, AND FRENCH 



19 




Good Hope. Dutch captains had been sailing to the East 
Indies for several years, and in 1602 the Dutch formed an 
East India Company. It was certain that the Dutch, the 
English, and the French would soon form companies to trade 
and make settlements in the Western Indies; that is, in what 
we call America. If they should, the Spaniards would have 
little chance of adding much to 
what they possessed, and might 
lose even that. 

Champlain's First Settlement. 
— Of the three rivals of Spain the 
French were the first to attempt 
a settlement. Samuel de Cham- 
plain, who had already visited the 
New World in the service of the 
Spanish king, sailed for America in 
1604, this time under the author- 
ity of King Henry of France. He 
was in the employ of a nobleman named De Monts. De 
Monts had received from the king the right to settle and rule 
the region between what is now New Jersey and Nova Scotia. 
About 120 men were in Champlain's party. Unfortunately 
for them they attempted to settle on a barren island in the 
St. Croix River, which is part of the present boundary between 
the United States and Canada. Many died the first winter, 
and the rest moved across the Bay of Fundy to a place they 
called Port Royal. 

Champlain misses an Opportunity. — Champlain carefully 
explored the coast to the southward, but missed the excel- 
lent harbors where the English afterward built Portland and 
Boston. He entered the harbor of what was soon to become 
Plymouth, and sailed around Cape Cod. He was again 
unlucky enough not to find Narragansett Bay, where New- 
port was built later, or to pass through Long Island Sound 



Samuel de Champlain 
After the Moncornet portrait 



20 SETTLEMENTS ON THE ATLANTIC SHORE 



to the beautiful harbor now belonging to New York City. 
He concluded that there was a better chance for a colony in 
the region of the St. Lawrence River. He missed a great 
opportunity, leaving the way open for the English. 

The Virginia Company. — Meanwhile several Englishmen 
had crossed the Atlantic, and one of them made such an 

enthusiastic report 
about the places he 
visited, which were on 
the Kennebec River, 
that his fellow coun- 
trymen were eager to 
found a colony. 
Raleigh's ill luck 
showed them that the 
best way was to form 
" a company somewhat 
j£ like the East India 
my Company. Raleigh 
had spent on his ven- 
tures a sum almost 
Sir Walter Raleigh equa i to a million dol- 

After the painting in the collection of the i %• .1 

Duchess of Dorset lars > according to the 

present value of money, and yet he had failed, partly for the 
lack of more money. What might be called a stock company 
or corporation was therefore formed in 1606. Queen Elizabeth 
had died, and James I was on the throne. From him the 
company obtained the right to settle in America between 
the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth parallels of latitude. The 
region was still called Virginia, as Raleigh had named it. 
The company was, therefore, called the Virginia Company. 1 
It was made up of noblemen, wealthy landholders, and rich 

1 The company was made up of two groups, one of Londoners, the other of 
men from the west of England. The first group was called the London Com- 




THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY 21 

merchants. Each one who gave a sum equal to $300 became 
owner or proprietor of a share, and was, of course, entitled 
to a part of the profits coming from trade with the Indians 
or from discoveries of gold. 

"Eastward Ho!" — Some members of the company bought 
shares in the enterprise because they thought it patriotic 
to obtain lands in America for the king. Others wanted to 
Christianize the Indians. Still others expected to increase 
their fortunes. A popular play, called Eastward Ho! put 
on the stage in 1605, spoke of Virginia as a land where gold 
was more plentiful than copper in England. This play also 
said that the natives went out on holidays to gather rubies 
and diamonds to hang on their children's coats and to stick 
in their caps. Such tales were like those which caused 
De Soto to search for the Gilded Man, and Coronado for the 
Seven Cities of Cibola. 

The Spaniards aroused. — Two years before the Virginia 
Company was formed King James had made peace with the 
king of Spain, so that the company's ships were not likely to 
be attacked on their way to America. But when the Span- 
iards heard that Englishmen were going to the New World, 
the Spanish ambassador at London declared that America 
was all a part of the Indies, which belonged to his king. King 
James listened politely, but said that there could be no wrong 
in settling on lands which the Spaniards had not occupied. 

The Settlement at Jamestown. — A large part of the year 
1606 was spent by the managers of the company in obtaining 
men for their proposed colony. What promises they made 
and what sort of men they persuaded to go, will be told in 
another chapter. Here it is enough to show the importance 
of the colony in the struggle between the Spaniards, English, 
French, and Dutch, for the best parts of North America. 

pany, the second the Plymouth Company. It was the London Company which 
founded Jamestown. 



22 SETTLEMENTS ON THE ATLANTIC SHORE 



The expedition set out just before Christmas, 1606. After 
five wearisome months on the ocean it reached Chesapeake 
Bay. The officers finally chose as a suitable place for their 
settlement a small peninsula running out into a stream which 
they called the James River. On May 14, 1607, the party 

landed and be- 
gan to build a 
village, naming 
i t Jamestown, 
after the king. 

Attempts 1 
find the South 
Sea. — The set- 
tlers did not 
know that near- 
ly three thou- 
sand miles sep- 
arated them 
from the South 
Sea or Pacific 
Ocean, and 
while some were building houses others hurried off to see if 
Chesapeake Bay by any chance was the passage to the Indies 
for which so many sailors had looked. If it was, the founders 
of the colony would be well paid for the time and money they 
had expended. The most famous of these searchers after a 
route to the South Sea was Captain John Smith. 

Settlement at Quebec. — The next year Champlain made 
his first settlement on the St. Lawrence. It was situated 
at a point where the river, ordinarily very broad, narrows to 
less than a mile in width. The strait, or narrows, was called 
"Quebec" by the Indians, and this name was given to Cham- 
plain's village. Three years later he made the beginnings of 
another settlement farther up the river at Montreal. 







^^ 



Ruins of the Brick Church 
Built at Jamestown in 1639 



THE FRENCH AND DUTCH 



23 



Henry Hudson. — About the same time an Englishman, 
Henry Hudson, who had entered the service of the Dutch 
East India Company, reached America in search of a pas- 
sage to China. He sailed as far south as Chesapeake Bay, 
and then turned northward. Soon he entered the strait now 
called the Narrows, which separates New York harbor from 
the sea. He discovered the broad and beautiful river which 




The First View of Quebec 
After an old print 

stretches northward among the hills and which now bears 
his name. As the water was salt and the tides were strong, 
he thought this might be the passage for which he was looking. 
It is not strange that he was deceived. The Hudson for one 
hundred and fifty miles inland is not a true river, but a fiord 
or deep channel into the highlands, with a rock bottom below 
sea level. The Half Moon, Hudson's ship, aided by wind 
and tide, sailed or drifted until it was stopped by the shallows 
near the site of the present city of Albany. Hudson had not 
discovered a passage to China, but instead one of the most 
useful rivers in the world. 

Discovery of Hudson Bay. — Two years later Hudson lost 
his life, still bravely pursuing his search for a passage to the 



24 SETTLEMENTS ON THE ATLANTIC SHORE 

Indies. This time he was exploring in the far north, and 
entered that great arm of the sea which, as Hudson Bay, bears 
his name. His sailors, enraged because of the sufferings his 
venture compelled them to endure, mutinied and set him 
adrift in a small boat. 




The "Half Moon" in the Hudson River 
After the painting by T. Moran 

Settlement of New Amsterdam. — Dutch traders soon 
visited the Hudson River, but fourteen years passed before 
a regular settlement was made. In 1623 a fort and a few 
houses were built on the southern end of Manhattan Island, 
and the place was called New Amsterdam. The Dutch made 
another small settlement up the river at Fort Orange, where 
Albany is now situated. 

Beginnings of Massachusetts. — The English had by this 
time founded another settlement, a small party having landed 
at Plymouth in 1620. Within a few years a group of English 
settlements was growing up on the shores of Massachusetts 
Bay, another group in Connecticut, another in Rhode Island, 
and still another in Maryland. 



EUROPEAN CLAIMS IN AMERICA 



25 




SCALE OF MILES 



60 100 200 300 



Parts of North America Occupied or Explored about 1650 



26 SETTLEMENTS ON THE ATLANTIC SHORE 

A Foothold on the Atlantic Shore. — What Raleigh had 
failed to do had now been done several times. St. Augustine 
was no longer the only settlement on the Atlantic shore. The 
English had gained a foothold in several places. Their 
rivals, the Dutch and the French, were also there. But the 
Atlantic shore was only the fringe of the continent. 

QUESTIONS 

i. Wh;il parts of North America had been explored by 1600? What parti- 
were unknown? 

2. Why were the Spaniards weaker rivals in 1600 than in the days of 
Cortes? Who were the great rivals of Spain? What hindered the growth 
of the Spanish colonies? 

3. What were the East India companies formed to do? Why were trading 
companies likely to injure Spain? 

4. Which rival of Spain was the first to found a settlement in North Amer- 
ica? Who led the expedition? Where was the settlement made? What 
coast did Champlain explore? 

5. How did the English go to work to form a colony in. the New World? 
Why was this method better than Raleigh's? What did the Spanish think of 
the plans of the Virginia Company? 

6. What settlement did the Virginia Company make? What did the 
leaders of the colony hope to find near the settlement? 

7. Where did Champlain make other French settlements? 

8. What parts of America did the Dutch explore? Where did they make 
a settlement? 

9. What English settlements were made about the time the Dutch made 
their settlement? 

EXERCISES 

1. Prepare a list of reasons why the English wanted a colony in America. 

2. Point out, on an outline map of North America, the regions the rivals 
had explored and the places where each had obtained a foothold. 

Important Dates : 

1604. Beginning of a French colony at St. Croix. 

1607. Settlement of English at Jamestown. 

1608. Champlain founds a French colony at Quebec. 
1620. Beginning of English settlement of New England. 
1623. Dutch settlement at New Amsterdam. 



CHAPTER III 



EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

The Appalachian Barrier. — The more venturesome men 
of the early settlements in America were anxious to explore 
the country westward. A map- 
maker nearly fifty years after James- 
town was founded said that the 
"Sea of China and the Indies" was 
only ten days' march from the head 
of the James River. As 
Columbus had found a 
barrier continent in his 
attempt to reach Asia, so 
the settlers found a 
mountain barrier in their 
way. To understand 
their task it is necessary 
to see what sort of 
an obstacle this 
barrier offered. 

Jamestown was 
built upon the 
coastal plain, which 
rises only a few 
feet above sea- 
level. Back of the 
coastal plain, some- 
times as far as 150 




The 
Great 

Moun- 
tain 
Barrier 
back OF 

THE 

English 
Settle- 
ments 

Note how far north 
and south this mountain 
barrier extends, making 
it difficult for the early 
settlers to move far to 
the west. 



28 EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

miles, is a broken country, like New England in appearance, 
called the Piedmont, 1 and still farther back, a range of 
mountains. This range, the Appalachian Mountains, pre- 
sented for 1,300 miles an almost unbroken wall to the advance 
of explorers or settlers. 

Nature of the Barrier. — The Appalachians do not form 
a single barrier, but a system of barriers. Their eastern 
ridges fall away into low hills in eastern Pennsylvania, the 
highlands of New Jersey, and the palisades of the Hudson. 
In Maryland, Virginia, and farther south, they form a moun- 
tain range, called the Blue Ridge. West of these ridges, or 
of the hills which prolong them, lies the Appalachian Valley, 
also full of ridges difficult to cross. Still farther west rises 
the steep slope of the Alleghany and Cumberland plateau, a 
thousand or more feet in height. In Pennsylvania this is 

called the Alle- 
ghany Moun- 
tains. The west- 
ern slope of the 
plateau falls 
away gradually 
toward the Mis- 
sissippi River or 
the Great Lakes. 
The Mohawk Passage. — The only real break in the barrier 
is the valley of the Mohawk, a river which flows into the 
Hudson near Albany. There the barrier sinks to a height 
of only 445 feet above sea level. Farther south the passes 
or passage ways are from 1,500 to 3,000 feet high. 

The Westward Flowing Rivers. — In the south as well as 
the north the rivers show the natural routes across the moun- 
tains. Explorers going up stream along rivers which cross 
the coastal plain, passing through the rough Piedmont coun- 

1 Piedmont: French for " foot of mountain." 



'•"•'-.. 













■ ■*&■, 






" 'V. 


Sjpl^l 


V'.';^ 'Ji'^fyZ-tyi'/; 


The 


Mohawk 


River 



THE WESTWARD BARRIER 29 

try, and climbing the mountains beyond, would find that they 
were not far from the head-waters of rivers flowing westward 
through mountain passes into the Mississippi Valley. For 
example, the upper waters of the James are near the streams 
which make up the Kanawha and flow finally into the Ohio. 
By following the course of other rivers, explorers could find the 
sources of the Tennessee, which makes its way into the Ohio 
near the Mississippi. But all this was very difficult, because 
in many places neither boats nor canoes could be used, and the 
journey must be made on foot, often through trackless for- 
ests or underbrush, and along steep and rocky hillsides. 

The Best Passages. — The Appalachian barrier explains 
why more than a century passed before the English settlers 
on the coast found their way, except in rare cases, to the 
valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi. The French at 
Quebec and Montreal were much more conveniently situated. 
If they succeeded in opening a route to the Great Lakes, 
they could reach several places from which, by short carries 
or portages, 1 they could go in canoes into the Mississippi. 
Had the Spaniards used the knowledge De Soto's followers 
carried back, they might have been still better off, and have 
entered the great valley from the south. The Dutch were 
better situated than the English, north and south of them, 
because from the Hudson they could follow up the valley 
of the Mohawk. But something besides the Appalachians 
kept the Dutch, as well as other settlers, from venturing 
far westward. This second obstacle was the Indian tribes. 

The Indian Barrier. — Columbus had seen Indians as soon 
as he discovered San Salvador. Cortes had conquered the 
Aztec Indians in Mexico. Coronado had visited the Zuni 
Indians of the southwest, and had seen others on the plains 
farther north. De Soto had fought with Indians many times 
in his struggle through the southern forests to the banks of 

1 Places where two bodies of water are near together. 






3 o EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

the Mississippi. To meet or fight with Indians was, there- 
fore, nothing new for the settlers of America. 

How the Indians lived. — The northern Indians were more 
barbarous than the Zunis or Aztecs. They did not live in 
towns like the pueblos, or like those in Mexico. Most of their 

. ,£, -^ . houses were merely 

ifibi& / rude tents of skins or 

.,$ bark. They raised to- 



*J&a- ■**$'■■$ ■'■'■''^•■- bacco, corn, and a few 
'^^trnm* ' - ^' ' vegetables, the women 



doing all the work. 

IJtlv'M^^fc^ ' ■ ^ The men did little but 

&#wPi 'I^^^SC hunt or fi s ht nei s h " 

- ;^|g^rii^^^»- boring tribes. Until 

^■^ssRsssSffiSew. they obtained guns 

Bark Wigwam of the Western Indians frQm ^ ^^ ^ 

Indians used bows and arrows. Their arrow and spear-heads 
were of flint. Their axes and their bowls also were of stone. 
They were very glad to obtain steel knives and axes from 
the settlers, for stone tools are hard to work with. 

The Territories of the Indians ; the Iroquois. — The Indians 
had many chiefs, but no government like that of civilized 
peoples. A tribe might be made up of many villages. Its 
lands had no fixed boundaries or frontiers, but its members 
knew their hunting grounds, and were ready to fight against 
anyone who entered them. Sometimes tribes were united in a 
confederacy by agreements or treaties. Such a confederacy 
was the Iroquois, or "Five Nations," who lived in the region 
now included in New York, northern Pennsylvania, and 
northeastern Ohio. Had the settlers tried to force a way 
through the Mohawk Valley, the Iroquois would have 
disputed every step. 

Other Indian Tribes. — The Indians in Canada and what 
is now New England were Algonquins, enemies of the Iro- 






7 & 



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c-S^i- 






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vf* I 









Jc.H» llero * 



r&tjjeJ 



>CH'0CTAW8 } .-/£» 

i H 



jrw 



n 
n 
n 
n 



Land more than 10,000 ft. 

above the sea level. 
Land between 6,000 and 

10,000 ft. above sea level. 
Land between 1,000 and 

6,000 ft. above sea level. 
Land less than 1,000 ft. 

above sea leveL 




e/ ""KS.l F NE* f ° 



SECTION 8HOWING PART-OE 

JiKWKOlNDLAND. 
55 



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h 



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STRUTHERS & CO., ENGR'SN. Y, 



Greenwich 76 



THE INDIANS 



3i 



quois. The Indians whose lands lay just beyond the line of 
early southern settlements were the Cherokees, — related to 
the Iroquois, — and the Creeks and Choctaws, who belonged 
to another great family called the Muskogee. 



_,~. - — /" . 













A Dwelling House of the Iroquois 

Champlain and the Indian Barrier. — Champlain first 
learned how strong was the Indian barrier. He wished to 
gain the good will of his Indian neighbors, the Algonquin 
tribes, and consented in 1609 to join a war-party against 
the Iroquois. The Indians carried him in their light birch- 
bark canoes up the St. Lawrence to the Richelieu, and so 
to the lake which now bears his name. The Indians soon 
discovered a war-party of the enemy near where Ticonderoga 
now stands. 

Champlain's Fight with the Iroquois. — Champlain and 
his two white companions put on their armor and made 
ready their guns. His Indian allies put him at their head. 
"I marched," he said, "some twenty paces in advance of the 
rest, until I was within about thirty paces of the enemy, who 
at once noticed me, and, halting, gazed at me, as I did also 
at them. When I saw them making a move to fire at us, I 
rested my musket against my cheek, and aimed directly at 
one of the three chiefs. With the same shot, two fell to the 
ground; and one of their men was so wounded that he died 



32 



EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 



sometime after. I had loaded my musket with four balls. 
When our side saw this shot so favorable for them, they began 
to raise such loud cries that one could not have heard it 
thunder. Meanwhile, the arrows flew on both sides. The 
Iroquois were greatly astonished that two men had been 
so quickly killed. . . . As I was loading again, one of my com- 
panions fired a shot from the woods, which astonished them 




K 



Champlain's Fight with the Iroquois 
After the drawing by Champlain in his Voyages 

anew to such a degree that, seeing their chiefs dead, they 
lost courage and took to flight, abandoning their camp and 
fort, and fleeing into the woods." 

A Costly Victory. — A few years later Champlain joined 
another Algonquin party which planned to attack a fortified 
village of the Iroquois near where Syracuse is situated. He 
was not so successful, and he and his friends were forced to 
retreat. These expeditions secured for the French the friend- 
ship of the Algonquins and the hatred of the Iroquois, who 
murdered all the Frenchmen they could lay hands on. 

Henry Hudson and the Iroquois. — It happened that a 
few weeks after Champlain's battle with the Iroquois, Henry 



DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT LAKES 



33 



Hudson was sailing up the river now named for him. He 
met other bands of Iroquois, received them on board the 
Half Moon, and gave them a feast. It is not surprising that 
the Iroquois liked the Dutch better than the French, especially 
as the Dutch settlers at New Amsterdam and Fort Orange 
were ready to trade knives, tools, guns, 
and liquors for furs. 

Discovery of the Great Lakes. — 
Champlain was not content with his 
exploration of the region now included 
in northern New York. Like all the 
others, he was anxious to discover some 
passage to the South Sea. He visited 
Lake Ontario, but not Lake Erie, 
which was surrounded by the hunting 
grounds of the hostile Iroquois. His 
most wonderful journey took him to 
Lake Huron. He followed the Ottawa 
River to its source, crossed over to 
streams flowing westward through a 
chain of small lakes, and paddled down 
to Georgian Bay and on to Lake Huron. 
Before he died, in 1635, his men had 
discovered Lake Superior and Lake 
Michigan. 

Father Marquette. — After the death of Champlain other 
Frenchmen pushed forward the work of exploring the west- 
ern country. Some of these were missionaries, especially 
Jesuits or members of the Society of Jesus, who went into 
this region to establish mission stations among the Indians. 
Father Jacques Marquette was one of these. The Indians 
from time to time gave him reports of a great river beyond 
the Lakes. Marquette thought that this might lead to the 
South Sea. 




Statue of Marquette 
At Marquette, Mich. 



34 EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

Discovery of the Mississippi. — In 1673, in company with 
Louis Joliet, a fur trader, and five men, Marquette set out 
in search of the river. Their outfit consisted of two canoes 
and a supply of smoked beef and Indian corn. From Lake 
Michigan they turned into the Fox River. Near the head 
of the Fox, Indian guides showed them an easy path or 
portage to the head-waters of the Wisconsin River. They 
paddled down the Wisconsin until they reached the Missis- 
sippi, the great river that the Indians had described. Mar- 
quette followed its course for a month, passing the point 
where the swift but muddy waters of the Missouri joined it. 
He also saw the lonely forest which was to be the site of 
St. Louis, and passed the mouth of the Ohio. Near the 
mouth of the Arkansas River, not far from where De Soto 
had crossed the Mississippi more than a hundred years 
before, the little party turned back. They had discovered 
that the Mississippi would not carry them to the Pacific. 

In 1674 Marquette and two companions built a log-cabin 
where Chicago now stands and spent the winter there. His 
men killed deer, buffalo, and wild turkeys close to their hut. 
The friendly Indians occasionally visited them, bringing 
corn and game. 

La Salle. — The greatest of French explorers was La Salle. 
Moved by the story of Marquette's discovery, he resolved 
to trace the great river to its mouth and claim the whole 
region for his king and country. He had already had many 
adventures among the hostile Iroquois near Lake Ontario 
and Lake Erie. Once he had built a little vessel, the Griffin, 
at the eastern end of Lake Erie, for use in the fur trade on 
the Great Lakes, but this was soon destroyed in a storm on 
Lake Michigan. He always had some new plan for the fur 
trade and for exploration of the West. He was the first of 
his fellow countrymen to see the value of the Mississippi 
Valley for agriculture and commerce. Twice he attempted 



LA SALLE'S EXPLORATIONS 



35 




the long, difficult voyage from the St. Lawrence to the Missis- 
sippi in frail canoes, and twice he failed. The hostility of 
the bands of Indians, the loss of supplies and canoes, the 
hardships of the northern winter, and the sickness of his 
men turned him back. Finally, in 1682, he was successful, 
but only after toiling through 
snow and over frozen fields, 
almost as if he were searching 
for the North Pole. 

La Salle explores the Missis- 
sippi. — La Salle's little com- 
pany of French woodsmen and 
Indians left Lake Michigan in 
midwinter and dragged their 
canoes over the ice to the head- 
waters of the Illinois, and pad- 
dled down the dangerous stream, 
in the midst of breaking ice, to 
the Mississippi. After they 
reached the Mississippi their task was easier, although their 
frail canoes were often in peril. In the balmy spring of 
1682, after a voyage of three months and a half, they arrived 
at the mouth of the river. La Salle solemnly took possession 
of the whole valley, including, he said, "all the nations, 
peoples, provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, 
fisheries, streams, and rivers." This was a way explorers 
had of claiming everything. He set up a pole bearing the 
arms of France, with an inscription or writing giving the 
date and the king's name. He also buried a leaden plate simi- 
larly marked. A wooden cross was planted beside the pole. 
He named the region Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV. 

La Salle attempts to found a Settlement. — La Salle, not 
content with discovering the mouth of the Mississippi, planned 
to build a fort and establish regular settlements. This would 



Robert Cavelier, Sieur 
de La Salle 



36 



EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 




Map of La Salle's Explorations 

keep the Spaniards out, and would also become the center 
of a large trade with the Indians. After his return to France 
he fitted out an expedition and sailed for the New World. 
He tried to find his way through the Gulf of Mexico to the 
mouth of the Mississippi, but missed it and landed on the 
coast of Texas some four hundred miles west of his goal. 
His vessels were so greatly damaged that he abandoned them, 
and tried to reach the Mississippi by journeying on foot. 



ENGLISH ATTEMPTS TOWARD THE WEST 37 

Buffalo meat made up what he called their "daily bread," 
and the skins replaced their worn-out clothing. For more 
than two years he struggled against obstacles. It was the 
old story of De Soto and his wanderings in the Mississippi 
Valley over again, except that La Salle was farther south 
and west. Great prairies, hostile Indians, swamps and 
bayous, and tangled and matted forests obstructed his way. 
The leader of the expedition finally lost his life on the journey. 







The Flat Land at the Mouth of the Mississippi 

His followers, weary of their hardships, mutinied and killed 
him. But not many years afterward other Frenchmen were 
more fortunate and made a settlement on the Gulf coast 
near the mouth of the Mississippi. 

The English Attempts to cross the Barrier. — ■ The great 
Appalachian barrier, which faced the English settlements, 
kept the English from reaching the Mississippi Valley as soon 
as the French. But they made brave efforts, lured on by 
the hope of finding an "Indian Sea." In September, 1671, 
two Virginians, Captain Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam, 
after crossing the rough Piedmont country and climbing the 
Blue Ridge, discovered a river flowing northwest. This was 
the New River, which empties into the Kanawha. They 
went on until they reached a place near the present boundary 



38 EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

of Virginia and West Virginia. Two years later James 
Needham succeeded in crossing the Blue Ridge farther south 
and reaching the head-waters of the Tennessee. 

Why the English could wait. — It was fortunate that few 
Englishmen were tempted by such ventures. The settlements 
on the coast needed all who came from Europe to clear the 
fields, plant crops, build towns, and open trade with one 
another and with Europe. There would be time enough to 
conquer the Mississippi Valley after a newer England had 
grown up on the Atlantic coast. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What barrier held back the early explorers and settlers? What was the 
Piedmont country? 

2. What natural break was there in the barrier? Why were the Dutch and 
the French better situated than the English for entering the West? What 
other barrier kept back the Dutch? 

3. How did the Indians live? Where were the Iroquois located? How 
did Champlain make enemies of the Iroquois? Why was Champlain's vic- 
tory a costly one for the French? 

4. What other parts of North America did Champlain explore? By what 
route did Marquette find the Mississippi? 

5. What part of North America did La Salle explore? What was he trying 
to do when he lost his life? 

6. What Englishmen crossed the great barrier into the West? By what 
route? Was this before the French discovered the Mississippi? Why was it 
better for the English to remain longer east of the barrier? 

EXERCISES 

1. Draw a map of the Appalachian barrier and of the routes across or around 
it to the Mississippi Valley. 

2. Gather pictures of Indian objects, tools, houses, and the like, which 
show their manner of life. 

3. Locate on an outline map of North America the hunting grounds of the 
Indian tribes which the early settlers knew. 

4. How many years passed between De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi 
and Marquette's.' 

5. Trace on a map the explorations of Champlain, Marquette, and l.a Salle. 

6. Trace the explorations of Fallam and Needham. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE FOUNDING OF VIRGINIA 

The First English Emigrants. — The first emigrants who 
went to Virginia were ill-prepared for the work before them. 
About half were young men belonging to the gentry, or lesser 
nobility of England, who had never done a day's work. They 
were eager for gold and for adventure. Several of the emi- 
grants were carpenters, bricklayers, masons, and other skilled 
laborers. The remainder were poor workmen from the farm 
districts, with a few worthless criminals and vagabonds from 
London. No women went on this first voyage. All the men 
were offered free passage to Virginia, and food, clothing, 
and shelter while in the employ of the company. When the 
company should be dissolved, the emigrants were to share 
in the profits and receive a part of the land. 

The First Voyage. — The voyage to America was then 
very different from the voyage of emigrants nowadays. The 
ships were hardly bigger than those which Columbus had used 
a hundred years before. Instead of attempting to sail straight 
across the stormy North Atlantic, the sailors followed the 
route of the Spaniards, stopping at the Canary Islands and 
at several of the West India Islands. Contrary winds delayed 
them off the English coast for two months. Their provisions 
consisted mainly of salt meat and barley or wheat flour. 
Long before their five months' voyage was over the barley 
spoiled. Fortunately, in the islands where they stopped they 
caught fish and birds for food. But by the time they landed 
16 of the 1 20 men had died. 



40 



THE FOUNDING OF VIRGINIA 



Settlement of Jamestown. — All were delighted to escape 
from the close, filthy quarters on shipboard and wander about 
on the Virginia shore that May morning in 1607. Even those 

who did not know how to 




Map of Virginia 



work were willing at first to 
help in felling trees and 
clearing the land for tents 
and a fort. The fort was 
a rough affair, made by lay- 
ing trunks and branches of 
trees end to end around a 
half acre. Some cut out 
clapboards to send back to 
England when the ships 
returned Others planted a 
small field of wheat. They 
made a garden, but the 
season for planting was al- 
ready past, and the seeds 
did not do well. This was a great misfortune, because they 
had little left on their ships to eat during the months before 
another season would open. In June the ships sailed back 
to England for supplies, but it was seven months before 
they came again. 

Early Troubles at Jamestown. — Meanwhile two thirds 
of those left on shore died of hunger or disease. Jamestown 
was situated on a low tongue of land, with marshes all about. 
Soon malarial fever attacked the settlers. They had no pure 
water to drink, and were obliged to use the river water, which 
at high tide was salt and at low tide slimy. Most of them 
lived in bark or brush tents. The only buildings were a 
few rude huts, a storehouse, and a chapel. 

The Starving Time. — The arrival of the ships in January, 
1608, helped for a while, because they had fresh supplies on 



JAMESTOWN 



41 




board, but they also brought more emigrants, which meant 
more mouths to feed. Several times in the next few years 
the settlement was on the verge of ruin. The winter of 1609 
and 1 6 10 was long known as the Starving Time. After all 
supplies were consumed, 
the settlers ate their dogs 
and horses. Barely sixty 
men were living when 
spring came. During the 
first three years the com- 
pany sent out more than 
300 emigrants, but at the 
end of that time only 
eighty were left. 

Captain John Smith. — 
The hero of those years of 
suffering was Captain 
John Smith. Every one 
knows the story of his 
capture by the Indians and of his rescue by Pocahontas, the 
chieftain's daughter. There are other things better worth 
remembering about him. Soon after his return to James- 
town he was made governor. He forced the idle and lazy to 
work, making the rule that "he who would not work should 
not eat." In a short time all were busy chopping down trees, 
hewing out lumber, and gathering pitch. The settlement 
took on an air of life and energy. Smith also saved the 
settlers from starvation by opening a profitable trade with 
the Indians. When the Indians saw that the colonists were 
in distress, they tried to drive hard bargains, offerirg only 
small pieces of bread or a few beans for a piece of copper or 
a hatchet. Smith found that the Indians liked colored beads. 
His men also learned to make chisels and hatchets from the 
iron they discovered in Virginia. When every other way 



Captain John Smith 

After a drawing in Smith's Description of 

New England 



42 THE FOUNDING OF VIRGINIA 

failed, he compelled the Indians to trade. They dared not 
refuse, for his guns were more dangerous than their bows and 
arrows. Unfortunately, in 1609 he was hurt by an explosion 
of powder, and went to England to have his wounds cared 
for. He never returned to Virginia. 

Jamestown not a Real Settlement. — In 16 10 the company 
sent over a harsh governor, who tried to make the colonists 
work better by introducing the strict discipline of an army 
post. The day's work began at six with beat of drum. When 
it closed in the afternoon, all were marched to the church for 
prayers. One reason why the men did not work well was 
that they were working for the company and not for them- 
selves. Whatever they produced went to the company's 
storehouse. The garden and the wheat fields belonged 
to the company. The men were fed and clothed from 
the common stock. Life at Jamestown was more like that 
of a lumber camp or a mining camp than of an ordinary 
town. 

Working for the Company. — The men who were not busy 
producing the food needed for the settlement worked to 
obtain loads for the company's ships. Lumber was about 
the only thing which could be produced at first. Once the 
Virginians thought they had found gold dust and sent part 
of a cargo of it to England. Not until the ship arrived at 
the wharf in England was it discovered that the gold dust 
was only yellow sand. 

A Change in the Company's Plans. — In 1614 Governor 
Dale made an important change in the management of the 
settlement in order to encourage industry. He allotted to a 
few of the older colonists three acres of land apiece, expect- 
ing them to pay as rent two and one half barrels of corn an 
acre, and to work for the company thirty days each year. 
The plan was so successful that the company stopped send- 
ing men over to work for it directly. The company also 



LIFE IN VIRGINIA 



43 



encouraged rich men to take large farms in Virginia and 
supply their own laborers. 

Plantations. — These new settlers may be called planters 
and their farms plantations. Their number increased, while 
the number of men working for the company decreased. 
The company was obliged to content itself with the rent of 
its land, and the trade carried on between England and 
Virginia. 

Indentured Servants. — The planters obtained laborers 
by offering free passage, food, clothing, and shelter to men 




Jamestown in 1622 
; ! \ After an old print 

willing to go to Virginia, but who had no money to pay their 
expenses. These men in return agreed to become servants 
of the planters for four, five, six, or sometimes even seven years. 
They were commonly called indentured servants, because they 
gave a bond or indenture, pledging them to serve. When 
their term of service ended, they could work for wages. As 
land was plentiful they might soon be able to secure farms. 
Sometimes a poor but ambitious young man would choose 
this means of seeking his fortune in Virginia. 

The First Slaves. — The first settlers in Virginia did not 
follow the example of the Spaniards and make slaves of the 
Indians. The main reason was that it was so easy for them 
to run away and find refuge among the other Indians of the 



44 THE FOUNDING OF VIRGINIA 

region. Indians were frequently hired to hunt and fish for 
the planters. In 1619 a Dutch sea-captain stopped at James- 
town, having on board his ship some negroes whom he had 
stolen from the Spaniards in the West Indies. He sold 20 
of them to the planters. But it was a long time before many 
negro slaves were brought into the colony. The cost of 
slaves varied from $100 to $250, while five, six, or seven 
years' service of an indentured servant cost from $50 to $75. 

Beginnings of Family Life at Jamestown. — Up to 1619 
few women had arrived at Jamestown. The settlers did not 
wish to marry Indian women, as many of the Spanish colo- 
nists had, although John Rolfe, a prosperous planter, married 
Pocahontas. The company now concluded, in the quaint 
phrase of the time, "that a plantation can never flourish 
till families be planted and . . . wives and children fix the 
people to the soil." Accordingly the company sent ninety 
young women to Virginia. The understanding was that a 
settler desiring a wife must gain the consent of the woman 
he chose and must pay her passage, which amounted to 120 
pounds of tobacco. The plan was so successful that the 
company sent out many other young women. 

Growth of the Colony. — ■ Life in Virginia gradually became 
more attractive. Whole families began to come from Eng- 
land of their own accord. The older settlers built larger 
houses in place of their rude huts. They sent for horses 
and cattle. The plantations increased in number as the new- 
comers settled along the river courses. On the James they 
spread as far as the falls where Richmond is situated. 

Rivers the Roads of Virginia. — The rivers were the high- 
ways connecting one plantation with another. Roads were 
almost unknown. Each planter had a wharf, at which sea- 
going ships could unload furniture, tools, cloth, and many 
other things, taking the planter's crop in exchange. In such 
a country market-towns were not needed and were very scarce. 



LIFE IN JAMESTOWN 45 

Families used the river highways in visiting or going to 
church, being rowed by their servants or slaves. 

Finding Wealth. — The officers of the company expected 
to find the main profits of the enterprise in gold mines, just 
as the Spaniards had been made rich by the mines of Mexico 
and Peru. When their explorers discovered no mines, they 
tried to make a profit by sending pitch, tar, and other naval 




How the Colonists built their new Homes 

supplies to England. The settlers in Virginia soon found 
something profitable to grow. This was tobacco. 

Raising Tobacco. — At first the tobacco which the Indians 
raised seemed too bitter, but John Rolfe learned how to cure 
it in such a manner that it found a ready sale in the London 
market. King James hated tobacco and tried to keep his 
subjects from using it. The governor of Virginia also thought 
that raising tobacco would take time from more useful labor 
and made a rule that no farmer should plant tobacco until 
he had planted two acres of corn. Still, tobacco fields spread 
in spite of the law. At Jamestown, in the spring of 161 7, 



46 THE FOUNDING OF VIRGINIA 

the market-place and even the borders of the streets were set 
with the plants. This is not surprising, for a single pound 
sometimes brought in London as much as $12 in present 
money. The price fell as more was raised, but tobacco con- 
tinued to be the chief product on which the planters depended 
for profit. 

The dried leaves were so convenient to handle that they 
became the money of the day, bound together in pound or 
hundred-pound packages. The price of everything was 
reckoned in pounds of tobacco. The salaries of public offi- 
cers and of clergymen, as well as all debts, were also paid 
with it. 

The First Virginia Assembly. — The officers of the Virginia 
Company had already decided to rent the land and sell it 
to planters, instead of managing it themselves. Soon they 
shared the government of the colony with the settlers. They 
hoped in this way to give the colonists a deeper interest in 
the welfare of the settlements. They were at the same time 
following closely in the footsteps of their ancestors. Far 
back in the Middle Ages the people of England had expected 
the king to ask the advice of representatives of the towns 
before he spent money which the towns raised. Why should 
the Englishmen who managed the affairs of the company be 
less just to their settlers than the king was obliged to be to 
them? Accordingly the company, in 1619, invited the chief 
settlements each to choose two delegates to form an assembly 
or little "parliament." This assembly assisted the governor 
of the colony and his council. At first it numbered 22 mem- 
bers, and met in the wooden church at Jamestown. It may 
appear like a small and unimportant body, but the Virginia 
Assembly of 1619 was the forerunner of every state legisla- 
ture of the present day. 

The English Laws obeyed in Virginia. — The custom of 
governing themselves by representatives was not the only 



FIRST VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY 



47 



DESCRIPTION 

of ZJ\(ev> England : 

OR 

THE OBSERVATIONS, AND 

difcoueries,of Captain IohnSmith(Adm\Tall 

of that Country) in the North of America, \n the year 

of our Lord 1 6 1 4: with the fuceeffe of fixe Ships, 

that went the next yeare 1 <5f J j and the 

acackntsbcfell himamongthe 
French men of wane: 

With the proofe of the prefent benefit this 

Coontreyaffoords: whitherthis prefentyeare , 

1616, eight wluntarj Shift aregone 

to makefurther tryall. 



custom that the settlers brought over from England. The 

year after the meeting of the first Virginia Assembly, the 

company decided to select from the English laws those rules 

which might apply to ways a 

of living in the colony. A 

little later, the judges in 

Virginia were required to 

promise to "do justice as 

near as may be" to the 

way justice was done in 

England. Trial by jury 

was one .way which was as 

old as parliament. 

Schools and Books. — 
Many of the early settlers 
were educated men and 
were anxious to have their 
children educated. They 
were at first obliged to 
engage private teachers or 
send their sons to English v MY -^£££U*** l wA 

Schools. They brought are to be fould at hfshoufe called the .Lodge, 
, , .,, ,, c in Chancery lane, ouer againft Lin- 

books With them from coJnesInne. 1616. 

England. Some of them Reduced Facsimile or the Title-Page 

1 j • „i i„ of a Book that John Smith wrote 

enjoyed reading books J 

written by the Greeks and Romans. The Englishman in 

Virginia was much like the Englishman who remained in 

England. He did his farming differently, and that was 

about all. 

Number of Virginians. — Nearly 7,000 settlers had come 

at one time or another since 1607, but most of them had 

perished of hardships and disease. The Indians surprised 

the settlers in 1622 and killed 347. In 1624 Virginia had a 

population of 1,232 colonists, including 23 negro slaves. 



48 THE FOUNDING OF VIRGINIA 

End of the Virginia Company. — King James did not long 
permit the Virginia Company to manage the colony. In 
1624 he took away its privileges, expecting to control the 
colony more directly. Neither he nor his successors inter- 
fered much with it. He appointed the governor, but the 
settlers usually managed their own affairs. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Who were the first emigrants to Virginia? Why did they go out to 
settle under a trading company? What route did their ship follow? 

2. What work did the early settlers do? Why did they suffer so much? 
What did Captain John Smith do for them? 

3. In what ways was life at Jamestown more like a lumber camp or a min- 
ing camp than an ordinary town? What change in the company's plans did 
Governor Dale introduce? 

4. What was an indentured servant? Did they cost more or less than 
slaves? Which worked for the planters the longer — slaves or servants? 

5. What did the company do in order to introduce family life more fully 
into its colony? 

6. What use did the settlers make of the rivers in Virginia? What profit- 
able crop did they find? 

7. Why did the Virginia Company share the government with the colo- 
nists? How large was the colony in 1624? Why had the colony grown slowly? 

8. Why did King James deprive the Virginia Company of its privileges? 
Did he carry out his plan? 

EXERCISES 

1. Learn about some one of the many state legislatures in the United States 
— where it holds its sessions, how many members it has, what it does — and 
then compare it with the first Virginia Assembly. 

2. Find the Old- World customs which the Virginians followed in their new 
country. 

Important Dates : 

1607. The founding of Jamestown by the Virginia Company. 
1619. The first Virginia Assembly at Jamestown. 



CHAPTER V 
THE EXILES FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE AT PLYMOUTH 

The Separatists. — Virginia had its origin in the plans of 
a trading company, and was in the main a business venture. 
Quite different was the beginning of Plymouth colony. Queen 
Elizabeth and her successor, King James, like most people 
of their time in England and Europe, thought that everybody 
ought to attend the religious services ordered by law. Some 
of their subjects, however, believed that they had a right to 
form congregations and manage their religious affairs undis- 
turbed by the government. This led to their being called 
" Independents" or "Separatists." They disliked, besides, 
the manner of conducting the ordinary services of the English 
Church. When they tried to organize small independent 
churches, where they could worship in their own way, royal 
officials hunted them out and punished them by fines and 
imprisonment. If after three months' imprisonment they 
refused to obey, they could be expelled from the kingdom and 
their property seized. 

Exiles in Holland. — In 1607 and 1608 rather than run the 
risk of losing all their property, as well as of being sent into 
exile, many Separatists, especially from the farming region 
near Lincoln and York, crossed the North Sea to the Dutch 
cities of Amsterdam and Leyden. They could worship as 
they chose in Holland, but they found that only by the sever- 
est toil, including the labor of their children, could they 
make a living. They soon realized that their children were 
likely to forget the English language and English customs, 



5° 



THE PILGRIMS AND PLYMOUTH 



marry into Dutch families, and perhaps enter the Dutch 
army and navy. Some of the older people returned to Eng- 
land, preferring to risk imprisonment rather than cease 

being English. One con- 
gregation living at Leyden, 
of which John Robinson 
was the pastor, decided to 
go to America. They ex- 
pected to find land and a 
I chance to worship as they 
believed. They were, how- 
ever, too poor to go so far 
without help. Accordingly 
they sent two of their 
number to London to 




A House in Leyden, in 1620 



secure money to carry out their plan. 

The Plan to emigrate to America. — Some London mer- 
chants were persuaded to advance £1,200, equivalent to 
nearly $30,000 in money today, with which to hire ships and 
sailors and buy supplies. The understanding was that each 
subscriber of £10 was to own a share. Each of the Pilgrims, 
as the members of this emigrant band were called, was also 
to receive a share. Both people and money were needed 
to found a colony. All that the colonists could gain during 
the first seven years by labor or by trade with the Indians, 
except what was needed for their daily support, was to 
belong to the common stock. When the seven years were 
up, this stock was to be divided with the London merchants 
who had aided them. 

The Pilgrims. — ■ Only a part of the Pilgrim congregation 
left Leyden in the first expedition. There was neither room 
on the ship nor money enough for all. Robinson remained 
in Leyden with the others, who needed him more. William 
Brewster, a printer and writer, and next to Robinson the 



THE "MAYFLOWER" AND PLYMOUTH 



5i 




leading man of the congregation, joined the party of emi- 
grants and became their pastor. Among them was William 
Bradford, a born leader of men, and later the historian of 
the colony. Miles Standish, a soldier in Holland during the 
recent war with Spain, also joined the Pilgrims. Two others 
were John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, about whom the poet 
Longfellow has told a pretty story. 









Manor House at Scrooby, England 
William Brewster's Residence 

Their Voyage. — The Pilgrims left Holland in the summer 
of 1620. After many delays in England, a company of 102 
sailed from Plymouth, September 6, in the ship Mayflower. 
For nine weeks the little company was tossed about on the 
rough seas of the North Atlantic, living in narrow, unwhole- 
some quarters, as the first emigrants to Virginia had done 
thirteen years before. 

Choosing a Place for Settlement. — The Pilgrims had 
planned to settle somewhere in the neighborhood of the 
Hudson or the Delaware River, in what was then regarded 
as the northern part of Virginia. But after the Mayflower 
passed Cape Cod it came upon dangerous shoals. The 
stormy season had set in, and winter was fast coming on. 
The plan to go farther was, therefore, abandoned, and a 
site for a settlement was sought nearer at hand. 



52 



THE PILGRIMS AND PLYMOUTH 



The "Mayflower" Compact. — Steps were also taken to 
ensure orderly government in the colony after landing. 
The men held a meeting in the cabin of the Mayflower ; 
chose one of their number, John Carver, to be their gov- 
ernor, and signed a solemn compact or agreement to submit 
to the laws which should be made by the majority. 




Departure of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven 
From a famous old Dutch painting 

Beginnings of Plymouth. — A party of explorers in a boat 
left the ship at Cape Cod and explored the coast. On Mon- 
day, December 21, 1620, they landed at a place which Captain 
John Smith had already seen. He had given the name 
New England to the region from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod, 
and the name Plymouth to the well-sheltered harbor into 
which the Pilgrims now sailed. 1 This also happened to be 

1 In 1614 Captain John Smith, having recovered from his accident in Vir- 
ginia, made a voyage of exploration along the American coast from Maine to 
Cape Cod. He wrote a description of what he called New England, and also 
drew a map of the region. He presented the map to Prince Charles, then a 
boy of fifteen, who afterward became King Charles I. Charles and Smith 
changed about 30 barbarous Indian names to familiar English and Scotch 



SETTLEMENT AT PLYMOUTH 



53 



the name of the last English port which they had seen. 
They found a protected harbor, running brooks, and cleared 
land at Plymouth, and decided to locate there. Several 
days later the Mayflower came to anchor in the harbor and 




Captain John Smith's Map of New England 

the men began building the first houses. Lots were given 
to each family in proportion to the number of members. 
The women and children and the sick remained for weeks 
aboard the ship. Before the first winter was over several 
small houses had been built, with the sides of rudely 
squared logs and the roofs thatched with dry swamp grass. 
One served as a storehouse for tools and provisions. Into 
the others the families moved as soon as they were able. 

names, mostly places in which the young prince was interested. Accomacke 
was changed to Plymouth. 



54 



THE PILGRIMS AND PLYMOUTH 



Powder Point 




Plymouth Harbor 



The First Winter. — Prolonged ship life and exposure in 
a strange climate made havoc in the Pilgrim colony. When 

the first warm weather of the 
spring came barely half the colo- 
nists were living. Governor Carver 
died in April, 1621. Eighteen 
married women had come over in 
the Mayflower; only four of them 
still lived. The graves of the dead 
were carefully covered and planted 
with corn in the spring in order 
to conceal from the Indians the 
ravages of disease in the little 
colony 

Fear of the Indians. — The 
Pilgrims were fortunately free 
from trouble with the Indians. 
A recent pestilence had carried off most of those of the 
neighborhood, and left their cleared corn fields ready for the 
settlers to plant. The settlers were, however, always on 
their guard against attack. Whether in the field or wood, 
at church or at town meeting, each had his gun by his side. 
Their leader in arms was Captain Miles Standish, who, like 
Captain John Smith, was a brave and skilful soldier. 

Friendly Indians. — The colonists were surprised on a fair 
morning toward the end of March, while many were still 
sick, at the sudden appearance of a solitary Indian in their 
village. He advanced boldly, and gave them the good old 
English greeting of "Welcome!" He proved to be a chief 
from the far-off Maine coast who was visiting Indians nearby. 
His name was Samoset. He had learned English from the 
fishing vessels that annually visited his region. A few days 
afterward Samoset reappeared, bringing an Indian named 
Squanto, the only survivor of the tribe that had formerly 



THE COLONISTS AND THE INDIANS 



55 



inhabited the region around Plymouth. Squanto had once 
been captured and carried to England and had learned 
English. Samoset and Squanto brought a chieftain named 
Massasoit to visit the white men. In this way the Indians of 
the neighborhood became friendly with the settlers. Squanto 
made his home with the Pilgrims. He was their interpre- 
ter, explaining what the Indians said, and telling the Indians 
what the Pilgrims said. He also taught them how to hunt, 
and where to get fish, and helped them to procure corn and 
furs from the Indians. He showed them how to plant corn, 
placing a fish in each hole in order to fertilize the poor soil. 




A Piece of Wampum 

A New Kind of Money. — In trading with the Indians the 
colonists learned to use, in place of money, strings of beads 
made from clam-shells. The shells were first broken into 
small pieces, then chipped and ground into a round form. A 
hole was bored through the center, and finally the polished 
beads were strung together on fibers of hemp or on sinews 
of deer. Six white beads, or three purple beads, were 
counted as worth a penny. 

The First Thanksgiving Day. — The settlers at first had no 
horses or oxen or even plows, but many of them were farmers 
and they were soon able to raise corn, wheat, rye, barley, and 
peas enough for their wants. When their first harvest was 
gathered, they decided to set apart a few days for rest and 
thanksgiving. Four hunters obtained enough game in one 
day to supply the colony for nearly a week. Massasoit 
and his tribe were asked to join them in the season of fes- 
tivity. Ninety Indians came to Plymouth. These native 
guests remained three days. They contributed five deer as 



56 



THE PILGRIMS AND PLYMOUTH 



their share. The Indians amused the white men with wild, 
frolicsome games, and the settlers in turn entertained them 
with military tactics and evolutions. Each day was opened 
with a religious service. This was the first Thanksgiving in 
New England. In 1623 the settlers were made happy by 
a rain which came in time to save their corn from drought, 
and they again set apart a special day for Thanksgiving. 
In this manner the new custom of a Thanksgiving time 
each fall grew up. 




Copyright, i8qi, by A. S. Burbank 

A View of Plymouth in 1622 



End of the Partnership. — Emigrants joined the Pilgrims 
during the following years, so that the colony increased in 
numbers. The newcomers were in part from John Robin- 
son's church in Ley den, and in part directly from England. 
In 1624 some cattle were brought into the settlement. In 
one way, however, the colony did not seem successful. The 
colonists could find little except lumber or beaver skins to 
send to their partners in London. In 1627 they purchased the 
shares held there, agreeing to pay the London merchants in 
nine annual instalments. The Pilgrims managed to keep 
their agreement by establishing posts on the Kennebec 



GROWTH OF THE COLONY 



57 



River, Penobscot Bay, and the Connecticut River, from 
which they carried on a trade in furs with the more 
distant Indians. 

Dividing the Land. — The system of joint labor on common 
fields which had prevailed during the early years came to an 
end at about the same time. The better lands near Plymouth 
were divided by lot among the settlers in 
twenty-acre portions. The poorer land 
and the meadows at some distance 
away were left in common for a few 
years longer. The domestic animals, 
also owned in common, were distributed. 
There was not much to divide. Every 
thirteen persons secured a cow and two 
goats in the division. 

Growth of Plymouth. — The people 
who came later took up lands lying along 
the coast north and south of Plymouth 
and sometimes at a considerable distance 
inland. For a time such frontier settlers 
took part in the town meetings at 
Plymouth and attended church there, 
but within a few years separate towns were organized and 
new churches built. An emigrant ship bound for Virginia 
was driven ashore at Plymouth. A few who "carried 
themselves very orderly" were allowed to remain, while 
the others, being "untoward people," were compelled to go 
on to Virginia. By 1643 there were ten towns in Plymouth 
colony, and a total population of 3,000. The town of 
Plymouth remained the center of the colony, the residence 
of the governor, and the place where the colonial assembly 
of delegates from the other towns held its sessions. 




iV.O;:..?'H.rVt" 



Plymouth Rock 
The monument covers the 
spot on which tradition 
says the Pilgrims landed 



58 



THE PILGRIMS AND PLYMOUTH 



QUESTIONS 

i. What did the Separatists or Independents in England want to do? How 
were they treated when they tried to organize their own churches? Where 
did some of them go? Why did they soon grow discontented in the new loca- 
tion? Where did they decide to go? 

2. Why were the Separatists who came to America called Pilgrims? How 

did they obtain money to 
pay their passage and start 
the settlement? Who were 
the leaders? Did all start 
from Holland? 

3. Where had the Pil- 
grims planned to settle? 
Where did they decide to 
settle? Why did they choose 
Plymouth? 

4. What did the Pilgrims 
do the first winter? How 
many lived till spring? Why 
had they met with such 
hardships and losses? In 
what ways did the Indians 
aid them? 

5. What is the origin of 
Thanksgiving Day? 

6. How did the Pilgrims 
finally arrange terms with their London partners? Was this the original plan? 

7. What progress had the colony made by 1643? 




The "Mayflower" 
From the model in the Smithsonian Institute 
at Washington 



EXERCISES 

1. How do the terms that the Pilgrims made with their partners in London 
differ from those that the Virginians made with the Virginia Company? 

2. Learn all you can about Thanksgiving customs. Compare the mode of 
keeping the day now with the first Thanksgiving Day. 

Important Date : 

1620. The Pilgrims begin a colony at Plymouth. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 

The Puritans or Nonconformists. — Many people in Eng- 
land sympathized with the Pilgrims in the desire that the 
church be "purified" of most of its ceremonies. For this 
reason they were called Puritans. They did not separate 
from the church, but often refused to worship as the law 
required. In other words, they would not "conform," and 
were also called "Nonconformists." This made King James 
very angry, and he threatened to drive them out of the 
kingdom if they did not conform. 

King and Parliament. — The Puritans, and many other 
Englishmen, did not approve of the manner in which King 
James spent the royal income. Part of the money came 
from taxes or dues which the king had no right to collect 
without asking parliament. When his requests were laid 
before it, some members were sure to complain of what he 
was doing. He therefore seldom called parliament together. 
King James died before the quarrel became serious. 

Charles I tries to rule without Parliament. — Charles I, 
who became king in 1625, quarrelled with parliament more 
violently than his father. When he needed money, he also 
ordered the sheriffs to collect sums, which he called "loans," 
from all persons rich enough to pay. If they refused to 
pay, the royal officers threw them into prison. In 1628 
parliament asked Charles to sign the "Petition of Right," 
which was really a promise not to do any of these things 
again. When he did not keep his promise, the quarrel grew 



6o 



THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 



fiercer than ever, and Charles dismissed parliament, resolving 
not to call it together again. 

Puritans begin to think of Emigration. — Charles also saw- 
to it that the laws about worship were carried out, whether 
the people liked the laws or not. The Puritans, accordingly, 
had a double reason to be discontented with the way matters 

were going in England. Many be- 
gan to think of imitating the Pil- 
grims and emigrating to America. 
Several, of whom John Endicott 
was the leader, had already ob- 
tained lands north of the Plymouth 
settlement, extending as far as the 
present boundary of New Hamp- 
shire. They had also formed the 
Massachusetts Bay Company, hop- 
ing to make profits from the fish- 
eries and fur trade as well as to 
settle their lands. 

The Massachusetts Bay Com- 
pany. — In 1629, after Charles 
had angrily dismissed parliament, a large number of influ- 
ential Puritans resolved to emigrate to the lands of the 
Massachusetts Bay Company. Among them were some of the 
principal men in the company. The other members agreed 
that those who went should control the company's affairs. 
This was better than trying to manage the settlement from 
England, three thousand miles away, as had been done at 
first in the case of Jamestown. John Winthrop was chosen 
governor. 

The First Emigration. — The emigration of Puritans began 
in the spring of 1630. Before the year was over about two 
thousand crossed to the Massachusetts shore. Many were 
"country gentlemen," well-to-do landowners, like Winthrop, 




John Winthrop 

After the original in the Massa- 
chusetts Senate Chamber 



( 


■I- 


^/Gloucester 




Concord /■ £?■£ 


(Salem 

^Boston Massachusetts 
<X csHull 




Watt 


rtownX- 








Duxbury JM >=ip§fc, 
Plymouth f\ 


Cod 


Provide 


\ 


^ J 


\ 



BOSTON SETTLED 61 

who could pay their own expenses and subscribe something 
toward the expenses of the enterprise. 

Beginnings of Boston. — The settlers scattered in small 
groups along the shore of Massachusetts Bay from Salem 
southward. Winthrop chose for his home land where Boston 
now stands. On one side was an arm of the bay, on the other 
the Charles River. Excellent 
springs furnished pure water. 
Others settled near Winthrop 
on trails worn by deer or In- 
dians along the wood-covered 
hills. Boston soon became 
the chief town of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay colony. Within _ 

J m J Country about Massachusetts 

a year the colonists had begun Bay 

villages near Salem and Bos- 
ton, among them Lynn, Charlestown, and Newtowne, after- 
wards called Cambridge. The region seemed beautiful to 
the newcomers. Winthrop wrote to his wife, who did not 
leave England with the first group, "We are here in a paradise. 
Though we have not beef and mutton, yet (God be praised) 
we want them not; our Indian corn answers for all. Yet 
here is fowl and fish in great plenty." 

Troubles come. — The first houses were log huts, the roofs 
thatched with long grasses, and the chimneys made of sticks 
coated with mud. Unfortunately the colonists arrived too 
late to gain a harvest the first season. Their supplies ran 
low, and they were obliged to live on clams, mussels, and 
fish, which were plentiful in the bay. It looked as if they 
would have a starving time, like the Jamestown settlers, 
and Governor Winthrop appointed February 22, 1631, as a 
fast day. But the vessel they had sent to England for 
supplies arrived in time to turn the fast into a festival of 
thanksgiving. 



62 



THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 



M 



The First Winter. — The settlers did not escape other hard- 
ships common to every new country. Before the first winter 
had even begun 200 died. The others did not falter. Only 
a few gave up the struggle and returned to England. Their 

places were soon filled, for 
King Charles's tyrannical 
acts drove hundreds to 
emigrate to Massachusetts. 
Within ten years the num- 
ber reached fully 20,000. 
This is called the ''Great 
Emigration." 

The Puritans become 
"Congregationalists." — 
The Puritans who settled 
in Massachusetts were as 
sure they were right as 
those in authority in Eng- 
land were that the Church 
there was right. Not long 
after the Puritans landed 
they began to manage their 
religious affairs much like the Pilgrims. They did not, how- 
ever, become Separatists in the sense that they thought the 
government should not meddle in religious matters. They 
only separated from the English Church. But they believed 
firmly that the settlers should unite in the same church in 
Massachusetts. Questions which in England would be de- 
cided by the bishops or other clergy were decided in New 
England by the meeting or congregation in each town. For 
this reason the people were called "Congregationalists." 
They expected every one who wished to remain in their towns 
to attend the services which their congregations ordered. A 
person who was absent any Sunday without excuse was fined. 




Puritan Costumes 



RHODE ISLAND 63 

Roger Williams. — In 1631 Roger Williams, a young Welsh 
clergyman, who had been graduated at the University of 
Cambridge, England, came to Massachusetts Bay. He had 
an unusually active mind and often reached conclusions which 
startled other men in the settlements, especially the officers 
of the Massachusetts Bay Company. For example, he de- 
clared that the king had no right to grant 
lands in America, because these lands be- 
longed to the Indians, and should be bought 
from them. In speaking about the subject 
he treated the names of both King Charles 
and King James with scant respect. This 
alarmed the officers of the company, who 
feared that the king might be offended and 
might take away their charter. 

Williams an Exile from Massachusetts. 
— Williams was really a Separatist and tried 
for a time to live at Plymouth. Finally he 
became pastor of the church at Salem. Roger Williams 
There he taught that the government had After the Statue at 

,. . Providence 

no right to interfere m religion and that 
no one should be forced to attend church. In 1635 the 
officers of the Massachusetts Bay colony at Boston decided 
to send him back to England, but they first gave him ample 
time to settle his affairs at Salem. Before the day appointed 
for his departure, he fled through the woods, taking refuge 
among the Indians near the head of Narragansett Bay. He 
had often visited the Indians, could speak their language, 
and was looked upon by them as a friend. 

Beginnings of Rhode Island. — The Indians gave him a 
hearty welcome, took him into their wigwams, and shared 
their scanty supplies of food with him. In the spring a few 
followers from Salem joined him, and together they marked 
out the site for a new settlement beyond the territories of 




64 



THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 



either Massachusetts Bay or Plymouth. They called it 
Providence, believing that a good Providence had guided them 
to so excellent a location. Roger Williams paid the Indians 
$150 for the land, which seemed to the Indians a great sum. 
Other exiles from Massachusetts founded three more towns, 
including Newport, on Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay. 

In 1643 Williams went to England 
and obtained for these towns the 
right to rule themselves. This 
guarded against the danger that 
the Plymouth or Massachusetts 
Bay governments would attempt 
to rule them. Such were the be- 
ginnings of Rhode Island. 

The First Emigrants from Mas- 
sachusetts. — The year Williams 
was expelled from Massachusetts, 
a company of one hundred men, 
women, and children, under the 
leadership of Thomas Hooker, pas- 
tor of the church at Newtowne, 
left the colony for the Connecticut River valley. Why they 
went is uncertain. The other Massachusetts people were 
sorry to see them go. The main reason, probably, was the 
reports which they heard of the fertility of the lands in the 
valley of the Connecticut. They had no difficulty in selling 
their lands in Newtowne to newcomers from England. 

Founding of Connecticut. — Hooker and his companions 
started on their journey early in June, 1636. Each carried 
his pack, arms, and the tools which he needed. They drove 
with them a herd of cattle. Their route lay through the 
unbroken wilderness, with only a compass to guide them. 
They camped in the open fields. Finally they reached the 
broad valley where Hartford now stands. Other groups 




ATLANTIC OCEAN 



Country about Narragan- 
sett Bay 



LOCAL GOVERNMENTS 65 

founded Windsor and Wethersfield, and, farther up the Con- 
necticut River, Springfield. Springfield remained a part of 
the Massachusetts Bay colony, while the towns farther 
south were united in a separate colony called Connecticut, 
from the river which flowed past them. Within two years 
800 people had moved to the Connecticut Valley. A sep- 
arate colony was founded at New Haven by a group, mainly 
from London, under the leadership of Theophilus Eaton and 
John Davenport. 

New Hampshire. — While these larger settlements were 
being made, others were begun in New Hampshire at Dover, 
Portsmouth, and Exeter. The Massachusetts Bay Company 
ruled these for a time, but afterwards they were combined by 
order of the English king into the province of New Hampshire. 

The New Englanders govern themselves. — The New 
England colonists, like the Virginians, had already learned 
how to govern themselves. They brought with them many 
useful laws and customs. In the Massachusetts Bay settle- 
ments they also took rules from the Bible and treated them 
as laws. The people of New Haven went further, pledging 
one another to live according to the laws set forth in the Old 
Testament. At first they did not allow trial by jury because 
they found no mention of it in the Bible. If new laws were 
needed, these were talked about and decided upon in assemblies 
representing the citizens. There were also meetings of all 
the citizens of each town to consider its special business. 

Who were Voters in Massachusetts. — According to the 
charter of the company which founded the colony, the mem- 
bers or freemen of the company were to manage its affairs. 
By the end of the first year there were 2,000 persons in the 
colony, but only 12 freemen or members. The other men 
did not like to be ruled by a few, and soon 109 asked to be 
admitted as freemen. Fearing that they would leave the 
settlements if their request was not granted, the leaders con- 



66 THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 

eluded to admit them, but decided at the same time that only 
church members could become freemen. Consequently in 
Massachusetts for many years it was necessary to be a church 
member in order to vote. This was just as much a union of 
church and state as existed in England, except that the church 
differed from the one ordered by the English law, and the 
state was really a little republic and not a kingdom. 

A General Assembly. — After a while there were so many 
freemen in Massachusetts that they could not attend a gen- 
eral meeting of the colony. Besides, some lived too far away. 
They therefore used the plan of representation which their 
English forefathers had invented long before, and which the 
Virginians began to use in 1619. Within a few years they 
also began to vote by ballot for the governor and for the rep- 
resentatives or deputies to the assembly or "General Court." 

The New England Confederation. — Each of these colo- 
nies — Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New 
Haven — managed its affairs separately. Fear of the Indians 
and of the Dutch settlers in the Hudson Valley, led in 
1643 to a union for common defense. They called their 
league "The United Colonies of New England." Eight 
commissioners, two from each colony, were given charge of 
matters of common interest, such as war with Indian tribes. 
The Rhode Islanders wished to join the league, but the other 
colonies would not admit them. Brewster of Plymouth said, 
" Concerning the Rhode Islanders, we have no conversation 
with them further than necessity or humanity may require." 

The league lasted forty years. The only serious Indian 
war which it managed took place in 1675 and 1676. King 
Philip was chief of one of the tribes, and so the struggle was 
called King Philip's War. The Indians fell upon a dozen 
frontier villages, burning the houses and killing the inhab- 
itants. As soon as the soldiers of the league were assembled, 
the savages were defeated. The captives were sold as slaves. 



EDUCATION IN NEW ENGLAND 



67 



King Philip was killed, and his followers were scattered. 
A short time after the league came to an end Plymouth 
colony was united with Massachusetts Bay. New Haven had 
been joined with Connecticut in 1664. 




MVAINE ~<W ft/ id<> 



\itsss. J 
' Saco 

6SU 



ft) 
© 




QLunn" jrassatftuseits 
■Boston ICSu 
Dofichester Jj a y 



o' v l "> Plymouth *\ Cape Cod^ 
- * -» I \ ISSOO^ \ Bay ■ 



N N E\C T I C uW I ° f S^kU^B&tp"?' ^ 





New England in the Seventeenth Centura 

Education in Massachusetts. — Several of the leading men 
in the Massachusetts Bay colony had been educated in the 
English universities, especially at Cambridge. They expected 
their pastors to explain the Bible to the people, and thought 
that they could not discover the true meaning unless they 
could read it in the language in which it was written — the 
Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. 
Besides, like many others in England and Europe, these 
Massachusetts leaders wished educated men to read Latin, 
the language of the ancient Romans. Brewster of Plymouth 



68 



THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 



had a library of about 400 books, 62 of which were in Latin. 
Bradford could read not only Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, but 
also French and Dutch. It was not surprising, therefore, that 
among the first things the colonists cared for were schools and 
a college. In 1647 they decided that every town with 50 fam- 
ilies should support 

Time cuts down all 
Boch great and final): 




a teacher. If a town 
had 100 families, it 
should provide for 
what would now be 
called a high school. 
The Massachusetts 
assembly gave 1,000 
acres of land to each 
of the chief towns for 
the support of these 
schools. 

Harvard College 
founded. — Six years 
after John Winthrop 
and his companions 
landed on the shores 
of Massachusetts, the 
General Court voted 
to use part of the 
money which it col- 
lected from the settlers to found a college at Newtowne. 
John Harvard, one of the clergymen of the colony, dying two 
years later, left all his books and half his property to the 
college. The college was named for him, and the name of 
the town was changed to Cambridge in memory of the older 
university town of England. Families in Massachusetts and 
Connecticut were asked to give a quarter of a bushel of corn 
every year for the college. 



IT«i»Vibeauteous W ife 
Made David lcck his 
Life 

WhaUr in the Sea 
God's Voice obey, 

Xerxes the great did 

die, 
And Co mult you & h 

Toutb forward flips 
Death foonelt -nip*. 

Zacbeus he 

Did climb the Tree 

HH Lord to fee. 



Facsimile of a Page from the "New 
England Primer" 



AFFAIRS IN ENGLAND 69 

Education at New Haven. — The founders of New Haven 
also planned for a college, but at first they could spare no 
money. They had brought a teacher with them, so that a 
school was begun at once. Finally one of their number, 
Edward Hopkins, who had returned to England, bequeathed 
some money to the colony for the college. The best they 
could do even then was to open what was called the Hopkins 
Grammar School, in which Latin and Greek, as well as read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic were taught. 

Parliament and King Charles. — The "Great Emigration" 
to Massachusetts came to an end in 1641. For nearly twenty 
years after that time the Puritans had the upper hand in 
England and felt little desire to emigrate to America. They 
gained the advantage in this way. King Charles attempted 
to force the Scotch to worship in the manner ordered in Eng- 
land. The Scotch rose in rebellion, and Charles was obliged 
to call parliament together to obtain money to pay his sol- 
diers. The members, instead of voting the money, complained 
of their grievances. He dismissed this "Short" Parliament, 
but soon called another which refused to be treated in the 
same way. It was nicknamed the "Long" Parliament, 
because it lasted almost twenty years. 

Civil War in England. — In 1642 Charles and parliament 
quarrelled so violently that both raised armies and began 
a civil war. The members of the king's party were called 
Cavaliers, because many of them were nobles or "country 
gentlemen." The Puritans were nicknamed "Roundheads," 
because some of them cropped their hair close. The king 
was defeated and captured, and the government fell into the 
hands of the victorious Puritan army under the leadership of 
Oliver Cromwell. When the king stirred up civil war again, 
he was tried, condemned, and executed. 

The Commonwealth. — Oliver Cromwell now became real 
ruler of England. The government was called a Common- 



70 THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND 

wealth and lasted until two years after Cromwell's death in 
1658, when Charles II, son of the dead king, was called from 
exile to the throne. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Who had formed the Massachusetts Bay Company? What was the com- 
pany planning to do? Why did the Puritans wish to leave England? 

2. What arrangement did the members of the Massachusetts Bay Company 
make for those who went to America? 

3. Who was the first governor of the Massachusetts settlement? Where 
did the Puritans make the first settlements? 

4. Why did the settlers escape starving times like those in Virginia? Did 
they escape the other hardships of a new country? 

5. How did the Puritans in Massachusetts come to think religious affairs 
should be managed? What name did they receive? Why this name? How 
did they differ from the Pilgrims in their ideas of church government? 

6. What did Roger Williams teach? Why did these teachings alarm the 
Puritans in Massachusetts? Where did he and other exiles start a colony? 
What rights did they secure from England? 

7. Where did Thomas Hooker and his congregation first settle? Why did 
they leave Massachusetts? Where did they form a new colony? What other 
settlements were made near the Connecticut towns? 

8. Where did the New England colonists get their laws and customs? 
Why did the people of New Haven oppose trial by jury? How were new laws 
made? 

9. Why did the Massachusetts Bay Company permit men who were not 
freemen or members to vote? Whom did they allow to become voters? 

10. Why was a New England Confederation formed? What colonies com- 
posed it? What became of Plymouth and New Haven colonies? What useful 
work for New England did the Confederation accomplish? 

11. Why were the Puritans of New England especially interested in edu- 
cation? What rule about schools did Massachusetts lay down for towns? 
Tell the story of the founding of Harvard College and the Hopkins Grammar 
School. 

12. Why did the Puritan or "Great Emigration" come to an end about 
1641? 

EXERCISES 

1. Find out what the constitution of your state and of the United States 
says about religion. Did any of the Puritan leaders hold the views which 
governments today maintain on this subject? 

2. Find on the map, page 67, the location of the early settlements in New 
England, and tell why each was made and from where the settlers came. 



CHAPTER VII 



MARYLAND, A REFUGE FOR ENGLISH CATHOLICS 



Roman Catholics in England. — The English Roman Cath- 
olics were treated even more harshly than either the Sepa- 
ratists or the Puritans. Not 
only were they forced to pay 
heavy fines, but any priest who 
celebrated mass was threat- 
ened with death. Neverthe- 
less, influential Catholics were 
befriended by both James I 
and Charles I. Charles mar- 
ried a Catholic princess, Henri- 
etta Maria, daughter of the 
famous Henry of Navarre, the 
first Bourbon king of France. 

Lord Baltimore. — One of 
the influential Catholics whom 
King Charles chose to favor 
was Sir George Calvert, usually 

known by his title of Lord Baltimore. To him the king 
in 1632 gave 12,000 square miles of land on both sides of 
Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore was to pay the king one-fifth of 
the gold and silver which he mined, and was to send him 
every year two Indian arrows in proof of loyalty. The region 
was named "Mary Land" in honor of the queen. 

Maryland. — Lord Baltimore expected to make Maryland 
a great family estate, but he also wished to use it as a refuge 




Sir George Calvert, Lord 

Baltimore 

After a painting in the State House, 

Annapolis 



72 MARYLAND 

for persecuted Catholics. Although he died before carrying 
out his plan, his son Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, put 
it into effect. He equipped an expedition at an expense of 
£40,000, equal to a million dollars now, placing it under the 
leadership of his younger brother Leonard. The first party 
of emigrants was made up of about 20 country gentlemen, 
most of them Catholics, and about 200 artisans and laborers, 
chiefly Protestants. Two Jesuit priests joined the expedition 
as it passed the Isle of Wight. 

The First Settlement. — The ships were three months on 
the voyage, as they followed the older route through the 
West Indies. They reached Maryland in the early spring of 
1634. Calvert chose as a site for his first settlement a long 
bluff near the mouth of the Potomac River. The Indians 
who occupied it were glad to share even their huts and their 
half-planted corn fields with the well-armed white men who 
might defend them from the fierce Susquehannocks living 
farther north. They received in payment axes, hoes, knives, 
and some cloth. After the harvest they agreed to give the 
settlers all the village and the land about it. One of the 
priests, Father White, took possession of an Indian cabin, and, 
"having dressed it a little better," used it as a chapel. 

A few of the Indian families remained during the first year, 
the men teaching the settlers to hunt deer, partridges, and 
turkeys. The Indian squaws taught the white women how to 
prepare hominy and johnny-cake before an open fire. 

A Fortunate Colony. — The first settlement in Maryland 
was named St. Mary's for the Virgin Mary. A stockade was 
built around the little fort which protected the town from 
attack. St. Mary's was more fortunate in its beginnings 
than either Jamestown or Plymouth. The climate was mild 
and healthful, and the first harvest was good. The Indian 
neighbors were gentle and friendly. The colonists at the end 
of the first season sent corn to New England in exchange 



THE FIRST SETTLEMENT 



73 




for salt fish and other things which they needed. They also 
began to trade with the Virginians, obtaining cattle, sheep, 
hogs, and hens, with which to stock their farms. 

Maryland and Virginia. — Their dealings with the Vir- 
ginians were not all friendly. The lands which King Charles 
had given Lord 
Baltimore were 
originally a part 
of Virginia, and 
the Virginians 
objected to the 
loss. Indeed 
some Virginians 
under the lead- 
ership of Wil- 
liam Claiborne 
had already set- 
tled on Kent 

Island in Chesapeake Bay and were carrying on a profitable 
trade with the Indians. They soon quarrelled with the 
settlers at St. Mary's, and a petty warfare was kept up for 
years, until the king decided in favor of Lord Baltimore. 

A "Proprietary" Colony. — Lord Baltimore was the " Pro- 
prietor" or owner of Maryland. The country, therefore, 
formed a huge private estate, with the colonists as tenants. 
The proprietor exercised the rights of government over the 
colonists, much as if he were king. For this reason such 
a colony was called "Proprietary," just as Virginia was a 
"Royal" colony, and Massachusetts Bay a "Charter" colony. 
In Maryland the proprietor appointed the governor. He 
gave the settlers lands on easy terms, collecting one shilling 
rent for each fifty acres. Plantations of a thousand acres 
or more were called manors. A colonist who held a manor 
enjoyed certain powers exercised by nobles in England, act- 



Early Settlements in Maryland 



74 MARYLAND 

ing as judge in case of disputes between his tenants, and 
punishing their offenses. 

A Representative Assembly. — Lord Baltimore had prom- 
ised to ask the opinions of his colonists in making laws, and 
by his orders an assembly met in 1635. The laws which were 
framed were sent to England for his approval. With the 
governor's consent they could be carried out without waiting 
for the answer, although the proprietor always kept the right 
to veto or forbid laws. The earlier assemblies included all 
the freemen of the colony, while the later ones, as the settle- 
ments increased in number, were made up of representatives, 
like the assemblies of Virginia and Massachusetts. 

Religious Toleration. — Lord Baltimore sent Protestants as 
well as Catholics to Maryland. It was his wish that both 
should dwell together in peace. He gave strict orders to his 
governors and to the priests not to offend the Protestants. 
For a long time, however, the officers, as well as the clergy, 
were all Catholics. 

In 1649 Lord Baltimore's policy of religious toleration was 
embodied in a law, by vote of the assembly and assent of the 
proprietor. This was the well-known Toleration Act, which 
declared "that no person or persons whatsoever within this 
province, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from 
henceforth be any ways troubled ... or molested ... in 
respect to his or her religion." Lord Baltimore did not 
separate the church from the state, as did Roger Williams 
in Rhode Island, for in Maryland the government supported 
either Catholic or Protestant worship, sometimes both. 

How the Colony first looked. — Many Puritans who had 
settled in Virginia, but who were not well treated, moved 
into Maryland after the Toleration Act. Some of them 
founded Annapolis, a town which later became the capital 
of the colony. Most of the people were scattered along the 
coasts or inland upon manors, plantations, and farms. St, 



BALTIMORE i 75 

Mary's was little more than thirty farm houses straggling for 
five miles along the banks of the St. Mary's River. Chesa- 
peake Bay, with its many coves, inlets, and rivers, served in 
place of roads. Ships, as in Virginia, came to the wharves 
of the farmers and exchanged English wares for tobacco and 




Baltimore in 1752 
After an engraving in Scharf's History of Baltimore 

corn. Nearly a century passed before a town was founded 
at the head of the bay and named Baltimore in honor of the 
proprietor. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How were Roman Catholics treated in England? 

2. What territory in America did Lord Baltimore obtain? What did he 
wish to do with this? What kind of emigrants did he obtain? 

3. How long did it take to make the voyage? Why did it take so long? 

4. Where did Lord Baltimore's colonists settle? What bargain did they 
make with the Indians? In what ways did the Indians help them? Why 
was St. Mary's a fortunate colony? 

5. What relation existed between the Proprietor of Maryland and the 
colonists? What privileges did the colonists enjoy? 

6. What rights over his tenants did the holder of a manor have? What 
class in Europe did he somewhat resemble? 

7. How did Lord Baltimore manage to keep religious peace in his colony? 
How did his method differ from the one Roger Williams put into practice in 
Rhode Island? 



7 6 



REVIEW 



REVIEW 



i. The voyages of the three great discoverers — Diaz, Columbus, and 
Magellan. 

2. The conquest of Mexico by Cortes and of Peru by Pizarro. 

3. The exploration of North America by De Soto and Coronado. The dis- 
covery of the Mississippi by De Soto and of the St. Lawrence by Cartier. 

4. The Spanish settlements in the New World, especially St. Augustine 
in Florida. 

5. The first settlements of each of the rivals in North America. 

6. The barriers keeping English and Dutch explorers from the interior of 
North America. 

7. The French explorers of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley — 
Champlain, Marquette, and La Salle. 

8. The settlement at Jamestown. The first work of a trading company 
and its laborers. 

9. Virginia's growth into a prosperous colony. Finding new laborers. 
English laws and customs carried to Virginia. 
The Separatists become exiles. Their settlement at Plymouth. 
The treatment of the Puritans in England. 
The plan of the Massachusetts Bay Company in America. 
The first Great Emigration, 1630-1641. 
Exiles from Massachusetts found Rhode Island. 
Emigrants from Massachusetts found Connecticut. 
The governments of New England — town, colony, and confederation. 

18. The provisions made for education in the colonies. 

19. Lord Baltimore's colony of Maryland. 

20. How Lord Baltimore managed the religion of his colony. 



10. 
n. 

12. 

13- 
14. 

15- 
16. 

17- 




Maryland Shilling 



CHAPTER VIII 

DUTCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRIES: BEGINNINGS OF A 
GREAT STATE 

Rivalries and Conquests. — Spaniards, Frenchmen, and 
Dutchmen were among the discoverers and explorers of what 
is now the United States. These rivals of the English also 
began settlements within the regions which they explored. 
As the English settlements grew and spread, Spanish, 
French, and Dutch settlements were in danger of being 
attacked and captured by the English. The United States, 
like most European countries, was to be built up in part 
by conquest. The Dutch were the first to suffer from this 
growth, or expansion, of the English settlements, and by 
1664 had lost all that they claimed from Henry Hudson's 
discoveries. 

The Dutch and the English in the East. — The Dutch and 
the English first came into conflict in the East Indies, where 
the agents of the English and the Dutch East India Companies 
struggled to gain the rich trade of India, China, and the Spice 
Islands. The Dutch drove the English away from the Spice 
Islands, massacring some of them at Amboyna in 1623. The 
English never forgot the deed, but did nothing against the 
Dutch until their troubles with King Charles were ended. 

Founding New Amsterdam. — Henry Hudson had discov- 
ered the river which bears his name in 1609. He carried 
word to his employers, the merchants of the Dutch East India 
Company, that the Indians were ready to exchange valuable 
furs for knives, hatchets, beads, and similar cheap articles. 



78 



DUTCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRIES 



Although the East India Company took no great interest in 
the matter, merchants sent vessels over to the Hudson to 
trade with the Indians. In 1621 a Dutch West India Com- 
pany was formed, mainly to plunder the Spaniards on the sea 
or in the West Indies, for the Dutch were again at war with 
Spain. 1 This company received the sole right to the lands 
about the Hudson. Its agents built a trading post at the 
lower end of Manhattan Island, which soon became known as 
New Amsterdam, being named for the largest city in Holland. 
They established another post on the site of Albany, and 
called it Fort Orange. The whole colony was called New 
Netherland. Peter Minuit, who was sent over as governor of 
the colony, bought Manhattan Island 
from the Indians for about $24 worth 
of cloth, hatchets, kettles, knives, and 
other things. This seems a small price 
for the land on which New York City 
stands, but the Indians were well 
pleased with the bargain. 

New Amsterdam, like Jamestown at 
first, was the station or colony of a 
trading company rather than a real 
settlement. A few families arrived in 
1623, and others followed year by year. 
Most of their members were employed 
by the company or rented farms, or 
"boweries," from it. Even the clergy- 
man who "comforted the sick" and 
preached on Sunday was paid by the company. 

Patroons. — Certain members of the West India Company 
were anxious that the settlement of their lands should go 
forward faster. It was accordingly agreed in 1629 that any 
member who should found a settlement of fifty adults within 

1 See Introductory American History, pages 210, 226. 




Dutch Patroon or 
Landed Proprietor 



NEW AMSTERDAM 



79 



3ur years might have a tract extending sixteen miles along 

lie Hudson River, or eight miles, if it lay on both sides. 

Jo limits were set showing how far back these tracts should 

un. If the founder of the settlements, who was called a 

atroon or lord, should send out more colonists, he could 

ave more land. The colonists were farm laborers or renters 

n the patroon's land. They could not hunt or fish without 

is consent. 

'hey must 

rind their 

rain at his 

lill and buy 

tieir cloth at 

tie company's 

torehouse, for 

ley were not 

llowed to 

r eave. They 

r ere forbidden 

) trade with 

le Indians, though most of the early colonists soon obtained 

ie permission of the patroon, and turned fur traders. 

Such a plan was not likely to succeed, especially when colo- 
ists might obtain land on better terms from the English, 
'he most successful patroonship, or manor, was founded by 
an Rensselaer, and included a region equal to two modern 
Dunties around Fort Orange. The settlement soon con- 
sted of twenty-five or thirty houses scattered along the 
[udson. It was called Rensselaerwyck. 

The Dutch and the Indians. — The Dutch settlers, like the 
Dmpany which sent them from Europe, were interested chiefly 
i trade, and especially the fur trade. If all had been con- 
snt with that, their relations with the Indians would have 
^mained friendly, because they would not have desired to 




An Old Dutch Manor House 

At Rensselaer, N.Y. The song of Yankee Doodle is thought 

to have originated here 



8o 



DUTCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRIES 



occupy any of the Indian hunting grounds. But as soon as 
the good farm lands on Manhattan Island were taken, and the 
settlers sought more land east and west of the Hudson, the 
Indians were alarmed and angry. Both settlers and savages 
were guilty of murders. The Indians were made more reck- 
less by the liquor, 
or "firewater, " 
which they bought 
of the traders. 
The consequence 
was that for years 
war raged between 
the settlers and 
the Indians, and 
that the Dutch 
held little but Fort 
Amsterdam on 
Manhattan Island. 
A wall of earth, 
four or five feet 
high, thrown up inside a closely-set row of pointed stakes 
twice as high, was built across the island north of the 
fields near the fort. This palisade formed some protection 
against an attack from the Indians, and later gave its name 
to Wall Street. 

New Settlements. — In 1646 peace was made with the 
Indians and the settlements began to spread once more. 
Weehawken and Hoboken were two of those on the west shore 
of the Hudson. Among the villages across the East River 
on Long Island was Breuckelen, or Brooklyn. The Dutch 
were not the only ones to emigrate to the company's terri- 
tories. So many English and French came that the decisions 
of the company's officers were published in those languages 
as well as in Dutch. 




Wall Street Palisade from the East River 



NEW SETTLEMENTS 



81 



Beyond the Delaware, where the Dutch had trading posts, 
the Swedes attempted in 1638 to found a colony. They 
too had a West India Company, and like the Dutch were 
mainly interested in the fur trade. The Dutch regarded 
the Swedes as intruders and in 1655 took possession of 
their settlements. 




Trading Stations. — 
As the Dutch were in- 
terested chiefly in the 
fur trade, and as rivers 
offered the only routes 
for transporting furs, 
the Dutch tried to take 
possession of important 
points along the rivers. 
They had Fort Orange 
at the head of the 
deeper waters of the 
Hudson, and, somewhat 
later, pushed up the 
Mohawk River to the 
rapids, where Schenec- 
tady stands, and built 
another post. They also built a fort at the junction of the 
Schuylkill and the Delaware near the site of Philadelphia. 
They had built Fort Good Hope on the site of Hartford 
before Thomas Hooker and his followers arrived. 

The English Closing In. — The presence of the Dutch 
on the Connecticut injured the fur trade of the Plymouth 
colony, because the fur-bearing animals of the region near the 
coast were soon captured and it was necessary to go deeper 
into the woods for others. Even before the Newtowne con- 
gregation founded Hartford, the son of Governor Winthrop 
of Massachusetts Bay seized the mouth of the Connecticut 



NEW NETHERLAND 
IN 1655 

According to the Dutch 



82 DUTCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRIES 

and thus prevented the Dutch from using it as a trade route. 
Still worse for the Dutch was the settlement of Springfield, 
which had been the meeting place of their traders and the 
Indians for ten years. Meanwhile English settlements were 
approaching New Amsterdam along Long Island Sound, and 
were within twenty-five miles of it by 1639. The English 
were also threatening the Dutch from the south. By 1631 
Claiborne was pushing up the Susquehanna from Kent 
Island, in order to reach the sources of the supply of furs 
west of where the Dutch went to obtain them. 

Causes of War with the Dutch. — The troubles between 
the Dutch and the English came to a head when the Nether- 
lands and England went to war about the rights of trade on 
the ocean. Most of the ocean freight business was at that 
time in the hands of Dutch shipowners. The English par- 
liament tried to give English ships a better chance by passing 
a law that goods from other countries should be brought to 
England in English ships if not in the ships of the country 
sending them. This law, called a Navigation Act, further 
said that goods not produced in Europe, that is, goods from 
colonies or trading stations in the East or West, must be 
brought into England in English ships or the ships of the 
English colonists. This Act prevented the Dutch from 
carrying goods from other nations, or even the spices of the 
East Indies, to England or the English colonies. This and 
other causes of quarrel brought on war. 

New Amsterdam in Danger. — Never had the English Chan- 
nel seen such fighting, not even in the time of the Spanish 
Armada. The hero of the Dutch was Van Tromp, while the 
English hero was Blake, who had been one of Cromwell's 
generals. The English sent several ships to New England, 
expecting to raise a small army and capture New Amster- 
dam. The Massachusetts Bay people refused assistance, on 
the ground that the Dutch had not injured them. News 



ENGLISH ATTACK NEW AMSTERDAM 



83 



soon came that the war was over, and so New Amsterdam 
was saved for a while. 

A New Attack on the Dutch. — When Charles II became 
king in England, parliament made more laws about trade on 
the sea, forbidding all foreign ships, the Dutch included, to 
trade with the English colonies. European goods must first 
be sent to England, in order that the English merchant and 
shipowner might share in the profits of the trade. The Dutch 
submitted, but soon discovered that it was impossible to 




New Amsterdam in 1655 
After Van der Donck's New Netherland 

satisfy the English, who next robbed them of their colony. 
The king's brother James was "mad for war" with them, 
and asked Charles to grant him all the Dutch territory. 
Charles, generous with what he did not possess, agreed, giving 
James the whole region between the Connecticut and the 
Delaware, without even mentioning the Dutch. 

Seizure of New Amsterdam. — A few months later, in 
1664, four ships of war, with many soldiers on board, appeared 
before New Amsterdam. The English demanded the sur- 
render of the place, but the governor, Peter Stuyvesant, tore 
up the letter containing the demand and attempted to defend 
the fort. His councillors, thinking that it was hopeless to 
fight, made him piece together the fragments. When they 



84 



DUTCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRIES 



saw the terms which the English offered, they compelled 
him to agree to them. 

Beginnings of New York. — Colonel Nicolls, the English 
commander, changed the name of New Amsterdam to New 
York, and the name of Fort Orange to Albany, in honor of 
James, who was both Duke of York and Duke of Albany. 

Stuyvesant continued to live on 
his farm, called the Great Bowery, 
until his death. The old church 
in the fort was used by the Dutch 
Sunday mornings, by the French 
Protestants at mid-day, and by 
the English in the afternoon. The 
English mode of government was 
introduced within a few years, in- 
cluding trial by jury and repre- 
sentative assemblies. The origi- 
nal Dutch inhabitants soon began 
to learn the English language, and 
became much like their English 
neighbors. 

New Jersey. — Before Colonel Nicolls had reached New 
Amsterdam the Duke of York had given to two friends, Lord 
Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, all the land from the 
Hudson to the Delaware. It was named New Jersey because 
Sir George Carteret had bravely defended the island of Jer- 
sey against the Puritans during the English civil war. The 
proprietors were eager to attract settlers to their territory, 
and promised that each should worship as he wished. They 
offered 200 acres in every community for the support of the 
minister whom the settlers should choose. 

The Dutch at New York again. — The seizure of New 
Amsterdam hastened on war between England and the 
Netherlands. The Dutch made no attempt to recover New 




Peter Stuyvesant 
After the portrait in the posses- 
sion of the New York Historical 
Society 



ENGLISH HOLD THE ATLANTIC SHORE 



85 



York. Several years later, in another war with the English, 
they did recapture New York and held it for 15 months. 
They were obliged to restore it when peace was made. This 
was the last war between the Dutch and the English, who 
had already begun to see that the French and not the Dutch 
were their most dangerous rivals. 




The Stadt Huys, New York, 1679 

The English hold the Atlantic Shore. — The capture of 
New Netherland gave the English control of the whole Atlan- 
tic coast from the St. Croix River to the St. Mary's on the 
boundary of Spanish Florida. The settlement of New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas, which was begun soon after 
New Amsterdam was taken, strengthened their hold on all 
this territory, for unoccupied land was always in danger of 
being seized by some rival nation. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What rivals had the English in colonizing what is now the United 
States? Which was the first rival to lose its American territories' 



86 DUTCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRIES 

2. For what purpose was the Dutch West India Company formed? Why 
did it want the lands about the Hudson? What settlements did the company 
make? In what ways was the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam like James- 
town? 

3. How did the West India Company attempt to settle its land faster? 
How well did the plan succeed? 

4. Why did the Dutch have trouble with the Indians? 

5. What settlements did the Dutch make near New Amsterdam? Who 
besides the Dutch settled in New Netherland? What outlying trading posts 
did the Dutch found? 

6. At what points were the English settlers and traders closing in on the 
Dutch in New Netherland? 

7. What restrictions did parliament place on the commerce of the English 
colonists? Whose trade did parliament intend to check? 

8. What changes did the English make after the conquest of the Dutch 
colony? 

9. Who obtained the Duke of York's lands between the Hudson and the 
Delaware? What special privileges did the proprietors of New Jersey allow 
their settlers? 

10. How much of the Atlantic coast did England hold after the conquest of 
New Netherland? 

EXERCISE 

Locate on a map (see map, page 92) the English settlements which were 
nearest New Amsterdam on the east and on the west, including Claiborne's 
trade route on the Susquehanna. 

Important Date : 

1664. The English conquest of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. 



CHAPTER IX 
A SECOND GREAT EMIGRATION 

Virginia and the Commonwealth. — While civil war was 
raging in England few men thought of founding colonies in 
America. After the king's party was overthrown, many cav- 
aliers emigrated to Virginia. In 1649, 33° refugees arrived 
on one ship. Supported by them, Sir William Berkeley, the 
governor, and the General Assembly condemned the exe- 
cution of Charles I and declared their loyalty to his son 
Charles II as king. The victorious Puritans and their par- 
liament sent out an expedition to bring the defiant colony to 
terms. When it reached Virginia in 1652, Berkeley put the 
militia, 1,200 strong, under arms and prepared to resist. The 
leaders of the expedition, partly by a show of force, partly by 
willingness to grant generous terms, persuaded the Virginians 
.to promise obedience to the Commonwealth. 

Emigration of Royalists to Virginia. — The emigration of 
the royalist party to Virginia, however, continued. A 
writer living at the time spoke of "civil, honorable, and men 
of great estates" flocking in. One of them was John Wash- 
ington, great-grandfather of George Washington. Within 
twenty years the population increased from 15,000 to 40,000. 
After 1660, when Charles II was restored to his father's throne, 
fewer of the royalist party came over. 

The West Indies. 1 — Another region to which many emi- 

1 It should be remembered that since the occupation of Porto Rico and the 
building of the Panama Canal the history of the West India Islands has become 
of great interest to the people of the United States. 



88 



A SECOND GREAT EMIGRATION 



grants went from England at about this time was the West 
Indies. The Spaniards did not make as much use of these 
islands as they did of Mexico and Peru, but they wished to 
keep out the sailors of other nations. Adventurers from every- 
where sailed the West Indian seas. They attacked Spanish 
treasure ships, loaded with gold and silver from the mines, 
and even cities like Vera Cruz and Panama. To obtain food 
they hunted wild cattle, smoking the meat over wood fires 




f ' S ' flat** OCEAN 

Santiago *V S v ~SANTO-D,0 MINGO ^a^i,^ 

«" . Kington ''»"« M)»«;»J» y \ 



N r , L L E s 
CARIBBEAN SEA 



OHJADELOUP 
»", 

DOMINICAN 

LESSER „ 

MARTINIQUE^ 

BARBADOI 

ANTILLES 



V /' ^-^ -^ V Panama 

i 1 _ i * ^ 




Caracas 

i O U T H AMERICA 

\ ( 



called boucanes. This gave them the name "buccaneers." 
They were also called "freebooters" or "filibusters," from 
their swift ships, vliebooten or "flying boats." Some of them 
settled on unoccupied islands, the French at Martinique, 
Guadaloupe, and western Haiti, 1 the Dutch at Curacao, and 
the English at Barbados. About 1640 these settlers began to 

1 Columbus called this island Espafiola, or " Little Spain." One of the chief 
towns was named Santo Domingo, and in time the English, French, and even 
the Spanish gave that name to the entire island. Early in the nineteenth 
century some leading writers on geography suggested the use of the original 
Indian name, Haiti, which meant "mountainous country," and this is now the 
usual one for the island. 



DISSENTERS 



89 



raise cane sugar. The Dutch, however, were mainly inter- 
ested in smuggling. Their settlement at Curacao was the 
great market at which to obtain the products of Europe 
and the East Indies. Even Spanish colonists traded there, 
because the merchants of Spain asked higher prices than 
the Dutch. 

Jamaica. — At first the settlements in the West Indies 
received little help from European governments. A change 
took place under Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth. 
While England was at war with Spain Cromwell sent Admiral 
Penn and General Venables to attack the Spaniards in the 
West Indies. They failed to capture Haiti, but took Jamaica. 
One of its first governors was a Welshman named Morgan, 
who had begun his career as a hardy buccaneer. Planters 
came in from Barbados. Cromwell sent over from Scotland 
and Ireland many who opposed the Commonwealth. 

Dissenters. — Religious troubles again became the princi- 
pal reason for emigration as soon as Charles II was made 
king. He was surrounded by his father's 
friends and supporters, who insisted that 
the rules of the church made under Queen 
Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, should 
be enforced. Rather than submit, 2,000 
clergymen gave up their parishes. As 
they dissented from the methods of wor- 
ship ordered by law, they were from that 
time commonly called "Dissenters." The 
most numerous were the Presbyterians, 
the Independents or Congregationalists, 
and the Baptists. If they attempted to 
meet for worship, they were thrown into 
prison. 

The Society of Friends. — Another group of Dissenters 
was the Society of Friends, or the Quakers. The founder of 




A Quaker of the 
17TH Century 



90 



A SECOND GREAT EMIGRATION 




William Penn 

After the painting by Benjamin 

West 



the Quakers was George Fox. He thought that all God's 
children should be treated as brethren. He spoke with no 
greater respect to the magistrate than to ordinary men, refus- 
ing to give any man a title, and addressing each with "thee" 
and "thou." He and his followers would not take off their 

hats even in a court room. They 
believed so firmly in the brother- 
hood of man that they would 
neither bear arms themselves nor 
pay for the support of soldiers. As 
they would not obey laws of which 
their consciences disapproved, they 
were often arrested and thrown into 
prison. About 3,000 were arrested 
in the first two years of the reign 
of Charles II. 

William Penn. — The most prom- 
inent Quaker in England at this time was William Penn, 
son of Admiral Penn, who was a favorite with King Charles 
II. The old admiral was at first enraged when his son 
became a Quaker, but finally forgave him. On the death of 
the admiral in 1670, William inherited the family estate, 
which gave him an income equal to $25,000 or $30,000 at 
the present day. 

Six years later Penn purchased a share in New Jersey, 
which had already become a refuge for distressed Quakers. 
They settled mostly in the western part of the colony along 
the Delaware. By 1682 Penn and other wealthy Quakers 
owned all the shares of the original proprietors. Many Puri- 
tans had also come in from Connecticut and had selected 
farms in northern New Jersey. 

The "Holy Experiment." — Meanwhile Penn had become 
interested in another plan of colony building, which he called 
his "Holy Experiment." As King Charles owed him money 



PENNSYLVANIA 



9i 



A brief Account oF the 

format °f$ennl>toama. 



K 



Lately Granted by the 



G. 



borrowed from his father, Penn asked for a grant of land west 
of the Delaware and north of Maryland. He proposed to 
call the country New Wales or Sylvania. The king granted 
the land, and insisted 
on the latter name, 
and, in honor of Ad- 
miral Penn, placed 
"Penn "before it, mak- 
ing "Pennsylvania," 
or "Penn's Wood." 

Delaware. — The 
year after Penn had 
obtained Pennsylvania 
from the king, he in- 
duced the king's bro- 
ther, the Duke of 
York, to give him the 
land which now makes 
up the state of Dela- 
ware. Penn thus in 
1 68 1 and 1682 pos- 
sessed all the lands 
along the west side of 
the Delaware River 
from its mouth almost 
to its source. 

Penn seeks for 
Emigrants. — Penn 
expected to find many settlers 
Quakers, but he wished also to 
persons. In order to attract them to his colony he pre- 
pared an Account of the Province of Pennsylvania, which he 
sent to many places in the British Isles. He had it trans- 
lated into French, German, and Dutch, so that Europeans 



I N 

Under the GREAT 

Seal of England, 
WILLIAM PENN 

AND HIS 

Heirs and Affigns. 

Since (by the good Providence ol Cut, and the Favour of the Kmg") t 
Country in sl-tric* is fallen to my Lor. I thought it not left my 
Duty, then my Honed Iniercft, ro give Ionic publick notice of it to 
tbc World, that ihofc of our own or other Nations, that are inclin'd 
toTranfport Themfclvcs or Families beyond the Seas, may find ano- 
ther Country added to their Choice; that rfthey (hull happen to like 
the Place, Conditions, and Government, (fo far as the prefent Infancy of thirgs 
will allow us «ny ptofpeOJ they may, if they plcafc, fix with me in the Proi 
Vlnce, hereafter defcribsd. 

I. Tbc KING'S Title to thu Country before he granted it. 
It is the Jnt Ctni'ium, or Law of Nations, that what ever Wafte, or uncul- 
red Country, is the Difcovery of any Prince, it is the right of that Prince that 
was at the Charge of the Difcovery: Now this Prevmn is a Member of that 
parr of AfMTica t which (he King of England* Anceftors have been at the Charge 
of Difcovcring, and which they and he have taken great care to preferve anJ 
Improve. 

1 1. William 



First Page of Penn's "Account 
Pennsylvania " 
Reduced facsimile 



01 



among the 
obtain other 



persecuted 
industrious 



Q2 



A SECOND GREAT EMIGRATION 



might read about the enterprise, and, perhaps, come to 
America and join the colony. 

A Proprietary Colony. — Penn was proprietor of his colony, 
as Lord Baltimore was of Maryland. Even before he had 
any settlers he wrote out a constitution, from the words 
of which it was clear that he was interested in something 

more than the prof- 
its of the enter- 
prise. Through 
councils and as- 
semblies he plan- 
ned to share the 




~v rhiladelplitq 

■-Cn fAvn. 






-' ^— -<0 VHilmmutn,, 



HA T L A N T I C 



OCEAN 



SCALE OP MILES 



management of 

the colony with the 

settlers. In the 

laws which he drew 

up he showed that 

he was far ahead 

of most men of his 

day. For example, 

prisoners were not 

to be tormented 

and starved as 
The Middle Colonies they were [ n Eng _ 

lish prisons at that time, but were to be fed and clothed. 
Penn believed that the aim should be to reform rather than 
simply to punish them. 

The Founding of Philadelphia, 1682. — Penn sent his 
cousin, William Markham, to Pennsylvania in 1681 with a 
party of colonists. He followed, the next year, with about a 
hundred others, mostly Quakers from his own neighborhood 
in England. Others of the early settlers came from Wales 
and Ireland. The first party of colonists selected a site for a 
town about one hundred and twenty miles up the Delaware 



GROWTH OF THE COLONY 



93 



River. Broad streets and squares were laid out in a grove of 
pine trees on a low bluff along the river front. Penn called his 
town Philadelphia, a Greek word meaning "brotherly love." 

Growth of the Colony. — ■ Penn's colony grew rapidly. As 
the lands about Philadelphia were soon taken, later comers 
scattered along the Delaware River within the limits of 




Friends' Meeting House and the Old Court House 
Philadelphia 

Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania. One of the earlier 
settlers wrote an account of his experiences. "I settled," 
he wrote, "upon my tract of land, which I purchased of 
the Proprietor . . . and set up a house and a corn mill 
which was very useful to the country for several miles 
round. But there not being plenty of horses, people gener- 
ally brought their corn on their backs many miles; I remem- 
ber one man who had a bull so gentle that he used to bring 
his corn on him instead of a horse." Many of the settlers 
in the first years had neither horses nor plows. As the colo- 
nists were industrious and thrifty there was no starving time 
in Pennsylvania. 

Germantown. — Among the earlier bands of settlers were 
twelve or thirteen German families, mostly weavers, under 



94 



A SECOND GREAT EMIGRATION 



the leadership of Francis Daniel Pastorius. They reached 
Philadelphia in 1683 and were welcomed by Penn. They 
bought a tract of land a few miles north of the town, and 
began the settlement known as Germantown. 




A Street in Germantown in the Eighteenth Century 

Penn's Treaties with the Indians. — Penn was much inter- 
ested in the Indians, and often traveled among them. In 
June, 1683, he met a large number of chiefs and their warriors 
under a great elm tree near Philadelphia and made a treaty 
with them. The spot where this Treaty Elm stood is now 
marked by a monument, and is within the present limits of 
the city. Penn described the treaty in a letter to his friends 
in England, — "great promises passed between us of kindness 
and good neighborhood, and that the Indians and English 
must live in love as long as the sun gave light." 

Penn purchased the land from the Indians, although the 
king had given it to him. He bought from a chief one tract 
of land as far back from the Delaware as a man could ride 
on horseback in two days. The chief was to receive "so much 
wampum, so many guns, shoes, stockings, looking-glasses, 
blankets, and other goods as William Penn shall please to 
give us." 



THE CAROLINAS 



95 



Atl„marh 

NORTH CAROLINA #T vJ(*o.»i 



Penn's Return to England. — Penn was obliged to return 
to England in 1684, and, except for a brief visit many- 
years later, saw nothing more of his colonies. Most matters 
of government were left to the colonists themselves or to a 
commission, and later to a deputy governor who represented 
him as proprietor. Penn tried 
to manage matters by corre- 
spondence, but he was too far 
away. 

The Carolinas. — During this 
period of rapid emigration from 
England to Pennsylvania many 
dissenters also went to the 
Carolinas. The settlements in 
northern and southern Carolina 
were not planned at first, like 
Pennsylvania, as a refuge for 
the oppressed. They were 
more like the original settle- 
ment of Virginia. Indeed, the 
first settlers came from Vir- 
ginia, following the Indian 
trails along the coast. They 
cleared land on the Chowan River near Albemarle Sound. 
They were already there when Charles II gave to eight noble- 
men all the territory from the southern boundary of Virginia 
to Spanish Florida. The region had long been known as 
Carolina, a name given it in honor of the king's father, 
Charles I. 

Charleston. — The proprietors of Carolina were not con- 
tent with the small colony of Virginians on the Chowan River, 
and in 1670 they sent to southern Carolina a larger body of 
settlers, partly from England and partly from Barbados. The 
colonists began their settlement on an excellent harbor at the 




?0 Q> \st. Augustine V 



The Carolina Coast 



9 6 



A SECOND GREAT EMIGRATION 



junction of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. They named it 
for the king, Charles Town or Charleston. Some years later 
their settlement was moved to the site of the present city. 

The colonists at Charleston remembered the fate of the 
French colony at Fort Caroline a hundred years before, and 
feared a similar attack from the Spaniards. Their fears 
were not groundless, for within a few weeks a Spanish vessel, 

sent to break up the settle- 
ment, appeared off the harbor. 
The Spaniards on board, find- 
ing the settlers on their guard, 
returned to St. Augustine 
without striking a blow. 
Some years later they de- 
stroyed a small Scotch settle- 
ment nearer the borders of 
Florida. 

Huguenots in South Caro- 
lina. — Charleston and the 
country around became a ref- 
uge for many Huguenots, or 
French Protestants, who had fled because Louis XIV would no 
longer allow them to worship as they believed right. The 
proprietors were glad to obtain such valuable settlers, and 
offered them full religious liberty. Merchants, goldsmiths, 
shipwrights, weavers, and men of other trades found employ- 
ment in Charleston. At least seventy families took up lands 
along the rivers back of the early settlements. Part of 
southern Carolina seemed for a while almost a French colony, 
as there were so many settlers who could not speak English. 
The Carolinas divided. — The proprietors did not con- 
sider the settlements on the Albemarle and at Charleston as 
two distinct colonies, but as parts of one. They were, how- 
ever, too far apart to have any dealings with each other. It 




ATLANTIC 
OCEAX 



Charleston Harbor 



THE CAROLINAS DIVIDED 



97 



was nearly three hundred miles from one to the other, and 
by land only Indian trails connected them. Stormy Cape 
Hatteras projected into the ocean far enough to make the 
journey in small sailing vessels very dangerous. Each 
colony liked to manage its own affairs without much inter- 
ference from the proprietors. Years later, by 1729, the 
proprietors surrendered their rights in the colony to the 




Charleston in 1673 
From an old print 

king. It was then divided into North Carolina and South 
Carolina. 

Size of the Second "Great Emigration." — By 1700, 5,000 
colonists lived in southern Carolina, and 3,000 in northern 
Carolina. About 20,000 people had gone from Europe to 
Pennsylvania and Delaware; the majority of these were 
Quakers. About 14,000 had settled in New Jersey — the 
Quakers in the west, Puritans from New England in the 
north, and English and Scotch in the east, besides some 
Dutch on the banks of the Hudson. Meanwhile the popu- 
lation of New York had increased to 25,000, the city on 



98 A SECOND GREAT EMIGRATION 

Manhattan Island numbering 5,000. Most of the early 
emigration to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the Carolinas 
took place in the years from 1680 to 1690, and was due to 
religious troubles in England and Europe. This is the second 
great emigration in American history. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Who came to America after the English Civil War? Where did these 
emigrants settle? What colony did Englishmen found in the West Indies? 
What one did they take from the Spaniards? 

2. Who were the Dissenters? How were they treated in England? 

3. Why did Penn become interested in America? Where did the Quakers 
at first settle? Who besides Quakers settled in New Jersey? 

4. What was Penn's "Holy Experiment"? What lands did Penn secure 
in America? In what ways did Penn show himself liberal with his colonists? 

5. Who formed Penn's first colonists? Where did they make their chief 
settlements? 

6. How did Penn manage to keep the friendship of the Indians? 

7. How did Penn govern his colony after returning to England? 

8. Who first settled within what is now North Carolina? Who obtained 
the rights over the Carolinas? What other settlement did the proprietors make? 

9. Who besides English Dissenters went to South Carolina? How were 
the Huguenots treated in South Carolina? 

10. Why were the Carolinas separated? Who obtained the rights of the 

proprietors over the Carolinas? 



EXERCISES 

1. Make three lists: (1) one of 
the colonies established by proprie- 
tors, (2) of those established by the 
effort of a trading company, and 
(3) of those planted by the volun- 
tary effort of the colonists. 

2. What was the first great 
emigration in American history? 

Penn's First Residence in America Was its ^ use similar to that of 

the second great emigration? 

Where did the emigrants settle in each case? 

Important Dates : 

1670. Settlement at Charleston (Albemarle Point). 

1681, 1682. A colony in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia is founded. 




CHAPTER X 
THE FRENCH RIVALS 

The English and French as Rivals. — The rivalry of the 
English and the French was not keen at first because moun- 
tains and forests for hundreds of miles separated nearly all 
the settlements of the two peoples. To reach the St. Law- 
rence from the English settlements on the northern Atlantic 
coast a long and toilsome journey was required. The trav- 
eler had to paddle up the Kennebec, the Connecticut, or the 
Hudson, until he reached their head-waters. Then crossing 
mountain ridges he would find rivers which flowed into the St. 
Lawrence. The Hudson route was the best. It was easy 
to pass over into the Champlain Valley, and to go through 
Lake George and Lake Champlain into 
the Richelieu River. The Richelieu 
flows into the St. Lawrence between 
Quebec and Montreal. 

Acadia. — The only place where the 
English and the French came directly ^ 
into conflict was along the eastern 
coast of Maine and in Nova Scotia. 
The French called the region Acadia. 
As early as in 1654 an English officer, 
with soldiers collected chiefly in New 
England, captured Port Royal and A Beaver 

the other French settlements in Acadia. Beavei : sk j ns f were the staple 

in the fur trade 

The English gave them back thirteen 

years later. The reason for such troubles was the lack of 
any natural border or boundary between these settlements 
and the English settlements in Maine. 




IOO 



THE FRENCH RIVALS 



French Trading Companies. — The French, like the Eng- 
lish and the Dutch, formed companies to trade and to found 
colonies. Sometimes the king commanded rich nobles to 
take shares in order that these companies might have 
money enough to fit out ships and collect colonists. Unfor- 
tunately for the shareholders, most of the companies gained 
little profit. In this respect they did not differ from many 
of the English companies. In the St. Lawrence Valley a 
company with the pleasant name of the Hundred Associates 
at first had charge of Champlain's colony. 




Canadian Farms 

The farm houses in eastern Canada are still much the same as they 
were 200 years ago 

The Lot of Canadian Farmers. — In Canada the houses of 
the settlers were scattered along the rivers, as were the houses 
of the first Virginians. The land was not given to the farmers 
directly, but to nobles, or seigniors, as such landlords were 
called in France. The seigniors divided the land into farms 
which they rented to the ordinary colonists. The rent was 
small and was paid either in money or in produce. A penny 
or so an acre, a few chickens, a dozen eggs, or a sack of wheat 
were the usual charges. 

Like the settlers on the estates of the Dutch patroons, the 
farmers must grind their grain at the seignior's mill, paying 
a fourteenth of the grain for the work. This was at first a 
benefit rather than a burden, for the farmers could not have 



FRENCH SETTLERS 



101 



built mills for themselves. The farmers were commonly 
required to work three or four days each year on the seignior's 
land, at seed time or harvest. The lord occasionally demanded 
extra days, while his mill was being built, or the church 
repaired, or the roads improved. One fish in every eleven 
was taken by him for the privilege of fishing, if the colonists 
intended to sell the fish. 

The lord lived in a house befitting his wealth and power. 
The large log house with its slab roof — which was built in 




French Missionaries to the Indians 
From an old print 

the earlier years — gave way after a time to stately houses 
of stone. The peasant farmers continued to live in log houses, 
which they brightened with whitewash. Their fields ran back 
from the rivers in ribbon-like strips less than eight hundred 
feet wide, but extending as far as convenient. 

Jesuit Missionaries. — One purpose which the founders of 
the French colonies had was the conversion of the Indians to 
the Christian faith. Missionaries, accordingly, were promi- 
nent in the Canadian settlements. The Jesuits were espe- 
cially zealous, brave, and self-sacrificing. They pushed ahead 
of the other settlers, seeking new tribes near which to estab- 
lish stations. Their lives were often in danger. Some suffered 
untold tortures, and others were burned at the stake. The 



102 



THE FRENCH RIVALS 



world has no nobler story than the record of their labors and 
their martyrdom. 

The Beginnings of Canadian Towns. — An Indian mission 
station began with a chapel made of bark, which was soon 
replaced by a well-built church. The first missionaries, 
like the traders, lived among the Indians. As the mission 
prospered, separate homes were built for them near the 
church. If the governor of Canada deemed the settlement 




;^6ii«!<iMiii«:iiiii^|jjB^ ^- ^ l — ■- 



A View or Detroit in 1705 
After an old print 

important, a few soldiers were stationed there. A store- 
house for traders was also built, and the whole group of 
houses surrounded by a palisade to guard against sudden 
attack by hostile Indians. Usually the wigwams of friendly 
Indians stood not far away on the edge of a wood. Such was 
the beginning of many a Canadian town. Father Mar- 
quette had founded a station of this sort on the Straits of 
Mackinac. It was from there that he set out in search of the 
Mississippi River in 1673. Another station was established 
in 1 701 on the river which joins Lake Erie and Lake Huron, 
and was named Detroit. 

Fur Trade. — As the fur trade was profitable, about a 
third of the French colonists made no attempt to cultivate 



CONFLICT WITH THE ENGLISH 



i°3 



the soil. They pushed deeper and deeper into the woods in 
search of the best places at which to trade with the Indians. 
These wood-rangers, or coureurs de bois as the French called 
them, lived with the Indians most of the year, and differed 
from them little in dress and habits. The king's officers 
threatened to brand any who 
went among the Indians with- 
out a license, because they 
feared the farms would be 
abandoned, but many young 
men were fascinated by life 
in the woods and ran the risk. 
The Indians often brought 
their furs to the larger towns. 
Annual fairs were held at posts 
like Mackinac, Detroit, and 
Montreal. To them came 
throngs of Indians with heavily 
loaded canoes and set up their 
wigwams. A Coureuk de Bois 

The French Government and the Colonies. — The French 
king, Louis XIV, and his principal minister, Colbert, took 
a deep interest in the success of the colonists in Canada. 
Colbert wrote to Talon, who was the intendant, or man- 
ager, of the colony, that the king regarded his "Canadian 
subjects, from the highest to the lowest, almost as his own 
children," and urged Talon to "visit all their settlements, 
one after the other, in order to learn their true condition and 
to put them in the way of making some profit." 

Conflict with the English. — The French were not left 
long in undisturbed possession of Canada. The first quarrel 
was about the fur trade. In 1670 a number of English 
nobles, including the king's brother James, proprietor of 
New York, formed the Hudson Bay Company, and obtained 




104 THE FRENCH RIVALS 

from Charles II the right to all the country drained by the 
rivers which flowed into Hudson Bay. Their agents estab- 
lished posts on the shores of the bay and began to take 
trade from the French by offering better prices to the In- 
dians. The French resolved to ruin these rivals, and in 1685 
a war party started up the Ottawa River for Hudson Bay. 
But the English could not be driven away, and the French 
were finally obliged to leave the Hudson Bay Company's 
territory alone. 

The Iroquois become "English." — About the same time 
the French and the English began to struggle for the control 
of the Iroquois Indians, the powerful group of tribes which 
held all northern and western New York. French Jesuit 
missionaries had already gone among the Iroquois, but did 
not succeed in winning them as they won the Indians else- 
where. While Tames was still Duke of York and proprietor 
of this region, his agents met the Iroquois chiefs at Albany 
and persuaded them to acknowledge that they were subjects 
of the king of England. The English then hung up at the 
Indian towns and strongholds the coat of arms of Duke James, 
and warned French parties which attempted to enter the 
region that they were trespassing on English territory. 

Revolution in England. — In 1688 a revolution took place 
in England, which led to war with France in the colonies 
as well as in Europe. It happened in this way. Charles II 
died in 1685 and James became king. Soon most members 
of parliament and many other leading men suspected him of 
plotting to make England a Roman Catholic country again. 
At this very time Louis XIV, the cousin of James, took away 
from the French Protestants their rights of worship. The 
Huguenots who took refuge in England told of their suffer- 
ings. James had been on the throne only three years when 
his subjects rose in revolt. They offered the throne to his 
daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange, the 



INDIAN MASSACRES 



i°5 



Dutch ruler, who were Protestants. James took refuge in 
France with Louis XIV. 

England in League against France. — William had already 
formed a league of European governments against the French 
king. As he was now king of England the English entered 
the league. The war spread to America, where it was called 
King William's War. Shortly after it closed a new struggle 
broke out, which is called Queen Anne's War. Queen Anne 
was the successor of King William. This war also caused 
fighting between the English and the French colonists. 1 

The Horrors of War. — In both King William's and Queen 
Anne's wars the English and the French made use of Indian 
allies in attacking one another, encouraging them to rob and 
murder in heartless fashion. In 
1690 a party of French and Indians 
stole through the open gate of the 
frontier village of Schenectady at 
about eleven o'clock on a cold win- 
ter night. In a short time they 
killed more than half of the inhabi- 
tants and carried away many as 
captives. The English soon had 
their revenge, for with a band of 
their Indian allies they attacked a 
small village on the St. Lawrence 
opposite Montreal, burnt the 
houses, slaughtered the cattle, and 
killed or captured as many of the 
inhabitants as they could find. 

The Attack on Deerfield. — Fourteen years later, in Queen 
Anne's War, 200 Indians and 50 Canadians made their way in 
the dead of winter down into the Connecticut River Valley 

1 In Europe these wars are called the War of the League of Augsburg 
(1688-1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713). 




Door of House attacked 
by Indians 

In Deerfield Museum 



106 THE FRENCH RIVALS 

as far as Deerfield, which was then one of the frontier settle- 
ments of Massachusetts. At two o'clock in the morning the 
invaders climbed the palisades, and uttering their war-whoop, 
broke into all except the most securely guarded houses. The 
fate of the captives was worse than that of those slain, for 
any who became exhausted on the dreadful march back to 
Canada were tomahawked without mercy. 

The English were just as cruel. The legislature of Massa- 
chusetts offered $200 for every Indian scalp brought in. 
Soon afterwards an Indian village was surprised and five In- 
dians were scalped and the reward claimed. 

Conquest of Acadia. — Before these two wars were over 
the English gained one important territory. In 17 10 an 
English army, with the aid of colonists, mainly from Boston, 
conquered Acadia. When peace was made three years later, 
the French gave up their claim to the country. The English 
changed its name to Nova Scotia, and called its capital Annap- 
olis instead of Port Royal. For a long time few Englishmen 
cared to emigrate to Nova Scotia and the colony remained 
French, though ruled by English officers. 

The French in the Mississippi Valley. — While the English 
were slowly advancing upon the French from the north and 
the east, that is, from the shores of Hudson Bay and from 
Nova Scotia, the French strengthened their hold on the 
Mississippi Valley, especially at its southern end on the Gulf 
of Mexico. 

The man who won fame in this enterprise was Pierre le 
Moyne, commonly known as Iberville. He had led the 
French against the English on the shores of Hudson Bay. 
Now, in the interval between King William's War and Queen 
Anne's War, with a little fleet of four vessels, having on board 
200 colonists and soldiers, he sailed from France in search of 
the Mississippi. Iberville was a great admirer of La Salle 
and resolved to push forward the work which La Salle had 



FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 



107 



begun. In March, 1699, he discovered the Mississippi and 
rowed up its waters as far as the mouth of the Red River. 
Tonty, one of La Salle's men, who since his leader's death 
had remained at Fort St. Louis on the Illinois River, soon 
learned of the successful attempt of the French to take 
possession of the region at the mouth of the Mississippi, 
and sent messages and advice to them. 




Portages indicated thus :^» 

Map of Portages in New France and the Illinois Country 

The rivers and lakes, with their portages, were the highways for the 

missionaries, fur traders, and explorers 

The English Peril again. — Before the year was out a 
French party floating down the river suddenly came upon an 
English sixteen-gun ship a few miles below where New Orleans 
now stands. This ship had been sent out by one of the 
proprietors of Carolina to found settlements which should 
protect the western part of the region which the Carolina 
proprietors supposed they owned. In the grants to pro- 
prietors or companies the English kings had usually said that 
their lands extended westward to the Pacific Ocean. Never- 



io8 



THE FRENCH RIVALS 




Ruins of Old Kaskaskia 
From a recent photograph 



theless, the captain of the ship was persuaded not to attempt 
a settlement, the French telling him that they had a large 
force established farther up the river. 

A year later another party of Frenchmen discovered an 
English trader at the mouth of the Arkansas River. He 

also was from Carolina, 
one of those who with pack 
horses were making their 
way over the low southern 
ranges of the Appalachian 
barrier and trying to estab- 
lish a trade in furs with 
the Indians, even with the 
tribes beyond the southern 
Mississippi. The route 
was long and perilous and the French were in no great danger 
from this quarter. 

French Settlements on the Mississippi. — As the new cen- 
tury began the French were busily establishing settlements 
up and down the great valley. They extended from Cahokia 
and Kaskaskia in the Illinois country to Mobile on the coast. 
In 1 718 Bienville, Iberville's brother, founded New Orleans 
on a plain which was fairly dry, though surrounded by marshes. 
An embankment, or levee, was built around the little 
settlement to protect it from river floods. Already the 
settlements of the Illinois country had been placed under the 
governor of the new colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. 
New Orleans became the chief market, being much more easily 
reached than Montreal or Quebec. The men of the Illinois 
country loaded their furs, flour, and pork on wide, flat barges 
and floated down to New Orleans. The journey homeward 
was much more difficult, hundreds of miles against the cur- 
rent. They took back sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco, and articles 
from France. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 



109 



By the close of the first two or three decades of the eigh- 
teenth century it looked as if the French had outstripped the 
English in the discovery and occupation of the Mississippi 
Valley, the broadest and richest region within what is now 
the United States. The question was, could they hold it? 




New Orleans in 17 18 
After an old print 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why was it so long after the early settlement of America before the 
rivalry of the French and English became keen? Where did the two peoples 
first come into conflict? Why? 

2. How did the French found colonies in America? 

3. What rights had French seigniors over the colonists on their lands? 

4. What part did the Jesuits and traders have in the spread of French 
settlements? 

5. Why did France have difficulty in obtaining farmers to cultivate the soil 
of Canada? How did the wood-rangers live? In what two ways did the 
French people carry on the fur trade with the Indians? 

6. What French minister was much interested in the French colonies? 
What did he instruct the manager or intendant of the colonies to do? 

7. Why did the English form the Hudson Bay Company? What was the 
outcome of the struggle between the French in Canada and the Hudson Bay 
Company? 

8. Why did both the French and the English try to win the friendship of 
the Iroquois? Which succeeded? 

9. What change took place in England in 1688? 

10. What part had the Indians in the border wars between the French and 
the English? 



no 



THE FRENCH RIVALS 



ii. What colony did the English take from the French by conquest in the 
war ending in 17 13? What name did the English give the conquered colony? 

12. What new colony had the French just founded, 
making up for the loss of Acadia? Who had attempted 
before Iberville to found a colony on the lower 
Mississippi? What signs were there that the French 
settlements on the Mississippi were not entirely safe 
from attack? 

13. How extensive were the French settlements in 
the West? How did the Illinois settlers carry on trade 
with those at New Orleans? Had the English any 
foothold in the Mississippi Valley? 




EXERCISES 

1. By a review of the earlier chapters learn about 
land owners who had rights somewhat similar to 
those of the seigniors in Canada. 

2. By use of the map, page 107, find the various 
waterways by which the French could travel from 

French Fur Trader Canada to their settlements in the Mississippi Valley. 



Important Dates: 

1688. The English drive James II from the throne 
1 70 1. The French begin 



settlement at Detroit within what is now 



1718. 



The French begin a 
the United States. 
The founding of New Orleans by the French 



CHAPTER XI 

THE MAKING OF NEW FRONTIERS 

The Population of the Colonies. — In the first half of the 
eighteenth century the number of persons in the colonies 
increased steadily and rapidly. By 1750 there were nearly 
a million and a half, about five times as many as in 1700. In 
some parts of the country, in New England for example, the 
increase was due mainly to the growth of families which had 
arrived in the earlier years of the settlements. Many con- 
tained seven or eight children, who left the old home to help 
found families of their own. In other parts of the country the 
native families increased rapidly, and hundreds of emigrants 
from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Europe, or from the 
older colonies, arrived to swell the numbers. 

Beginnings of the Westward Movement. — The first settle- 
ments had been made on the coast or on the banks of some 
bay or river, at a place which sea-going ships might reach. 
As the population increased, the better lands were soon taken 
up, and newcomers as well as enterprising young men and 
women of the older settlements left the coast, moved farther 
up the rivers, or climbed the foothills of the great Appa- 
lachian barrier. New frontiers were formed. In this way 
began the westward movement, which was not to stop until 
it reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. 

German and Swiss Emigrants. — Events in England and 
Europe continued to drive many persons to America. Thou- 
sands emigrated from Germany and Switzerland. Many 
of them were Mennonites, who, hearing that the Quakers 



ii2 THE MAKING OF NEW FRONTIERS 

were prospering in Perm's colony, desired to enjoy the same 
liberties. The unwillingness of the Swiss Mennonites to bear 
arms made the magistrates of the Swiss cities ready to let 
them go. Indeed they forced some of them to leave. 

The "Poor Palatines." — The inhabitants of a German dis- 
trict along the Rhine called the Palatinate had several reasons 
. for desiring to find a 

^„ Redemptioners. peaceful refuge. For 

THERE fljll remain on board the {hip Aurora i j j .i 

from Atnftcrdam, about 18 paffcngersTamongft a hundred years the 

W Vp?uf? si .a v l r Rhine country had 

Servant girk, gardeners, kutchers, mafons, J 

fugar bakers, bread bakers, 1 fhoeroaker, x fUver been ravaged by war. 

fmith, i leatber drefler, 1 tobacconift, l paflhry 171, AH 

cook, and fome a, liuJe acquainted with waking * renal ana Uerman 

on famines, as well 35 farming; and tending hades, arm i e s crossed and re- 

ckc- They are all in good health. Any peifon . 

dcfiroua of being accommodated in the above Crossed this region, 

'^"""'^c^'loH^Ww Plundering and bnrn- 
5n the Oream, off Feu's Point: ing. Thousands went 

Who ojferjfot Sale, ° -, . , . n 

80 IrorNlcmnd Water Calks to England m Queen 

icheft elegant Fowling Pieces, fingU and do«- Anne's time. In 1710 

lie barrelled ' 

i_j,ooo Dutch Brick, and about 3,000 Were 

SU Jui r y y M! P * PrO ' ifl0nS * shi PP ed t0 NeW Y ° rk > 

. c „ where the governor 

Advertisement of Servants for Sale ° 

thought they could be 
employed in making tar from pine trees. When this experi- 
ment failed, most of them settled in the Mohawk Valley. 
Some emigrated later to Pennsylvania, moving down the 
Susquehanna from New York. A band of 500 Palatines, 
with a party of Swiss, went to North Carolina, where they 
named their principal settlement New Berne from the Swiss 
city of Berne. 

Other German Emigrants. — Many reasons besides war 
and religion influenced Germans to seek a home in America. 
Like most Europeans they were divided into nobles, citi- 
zens or inhabitants of the towns, and peasants or farmers. 
In Europe a citizen was not expected to become a peasant, 



GERMANS AND SCOTCH-IRISH 113 

even if he preferred farming to a trade. A peasant could 
not become a citizen. Indeed, he was generally obliged to 
remain on the little farm on which he was brought up. He 
must pay a part of his products to the noble who was lord of 
the community, and his children must serve for a time as 
domestic servants in the noble's family. These Germans 
had reason to be discontented and to emigrate to a country 
where they could obtain land, and by industry and thrift 
could become equal to any of their neighbors. 

" Newlanders." — When the shipowners found that many 
persons were eager to go to America, they thought they could 
increase their profits by sending men about to tell tales of the 
riches each person could easily gain there. These men had 
generally spent a short time in the colonies, so that their 
tales sounded true. They praised the new lands so much 
that they were called "Newlanders." They were also called 
"soul stealers," because they frequently cheated the poor 
emigrants. 

The Pennsylvania Germans. — Most of the Germans went 
to Pennsylvania. Sometimes the emigrants who arrived at 
Philadelphia in a single year numbered 6,000, and the smallest 
number was 267. By the opening of the Revolutionary War 
over 100,000 Germans lived in Pennsylvania and made up 
more than a third of the population. Some of the frontier 
settlements were composed almost wholly of these new- 
comers, differing in language and customs from those of 
the older settlements. From Pennsylvania many Germans 
moved southward along the Appalachian ridges until they 
reached the fertile lands of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley 
in Virginia. 

Scotch-Irish. — Events in Great Britain also caused 
emigration to America. In 1715, and again in 1745, the 
heirs of King James II tried to regain the throne, but were 
defeated. The Scotch had fought loyally for these princes, 



ii4 



THE MAKING OF NEW FRONTIERS 




est / : ..'-"/*'«tn''- , l I '.df 1 - 




called the "Old Pretender" and the "Young Pretender," 
and many were obliged to seek refuge in America. After 
1745 the English government attempted to break up the 
Scottish clans, and this also caused the Scotch to emigrate. 
During the same period many Scotch-Irish went to Amer- 
ica, because the Irish woolen industry was ruined by English 

laws which prevented 
the export of Irish 
woolen goods. These 
persons were called 
Scotch-Irish because 
they had emigrated 
originally from Scotland 
to the north of Ireland. 
The Scotch-Irish usually 
arrived either at Phila- 
delphia, Newcastle, or 
Charleston. Like the 
Germans, they settled 
on the frontier beyond 
the older settlements. 
Many settled in central 
Pennsylvania and 
moved southward up 
the Shenandoah Valley 
and even into North 
Carolina. Others, who entered at Charleston, went westward 
more slowly because of the wide belt of sandy pine barrens 
in the center of the southern states. Some of them in time 
met the frontier settlers from the north in the valleys of the 
Catawba and the Yadkin. It was not long before the 
foremost emigrants were pushing westward into the valleys 
sloping into Tennessee. Among those who came from Penn- 
sylvania was the father of Daniel Boone. 



The dots and crosses represent 
Vcurbiion frontier regions in 1775 where 
German and Scotch-Irish had 
settled in large numbers. 



Where the German and Scotch-Irish 
Emigrants Settled 



" NATURALIZATION " 115 

Scotch-Irish people formed fully a third of the settlers of 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and North Carolina, and a half of 
South Carolina. German and Scotch-Irish emigrants soon 
filled the back country with little settlements. Their eyes 
were ever turned toward newer lands beyond the ridges 
which hemmed them in. They were the first to bear the 
brunt of Indian attacks and were ready to struggle with the 
Indian for the possession of his hunting grounds. 

This Indenture m*de thefc^wtfDayof^C^ 

in the Yca£orou* Lord one thoufand, feven hundred and t-.^A^/^BETWEEN 

/{.in. //Lj^/^cJf^n^ — ^'jf^nS'X^, f ' -6f th> oiher Parr.; 

WITNESSETH, that/ the fa&JUfay^SlJ/SiA* J doth hereby covenant, promifc 

and grant, to and •with the faict/^s^j. Q>£it./uy> /i c s Executors, 

Adminiftratojs-ajid Afligns, ftora the Pay of the Date hereof unti] the fjrft and next 
Arrival at 0%*£*^&*ynAc**>' —in America, and after for and during the Term 
of jf&ict>. — - Years tp ferve in fuch Service and Employment as the laid 



rj/sfr^r-jtc^rue/ or £i? Aflign6fhall there employ x^^according tp the 

^Cuftom of the Country in the like Kind. In Consideration -whereof the laid,^?^^ 1 - 



-\*duy — doUi hereby covenant and grant to and with the iaid.^^. 

{/J)e.a^ir( to pay for su<t/Pattaafi, and to find aJlowX«?*Meat, Drink, Apparel 
and Lodging, with other Necefiaries, during the laid Term j and at the End of the laid 
Term to pay unto A*?n the ufual Allowance, according to the Cuftom of the Country 
in the like Kind. IN WITNESS whereof the Parties above-mentioned to thefe 
Indentures have interchangeably put their Hands and Seals, the Day and Year £rft 
above written. rf 

Signed, Sealed, and Delivered, ~A &dr 



in the Piefence of 




7 

A Redemptioner's Indenture 

Redemptioners. — Many of those who arrived in the colo- 
nies would not have been able to come had not some one lent 
them the money. Often they agreed to work a certain num- 
ber of years in return for it. In this case they were called 
"indentured servants," as at Jamestown, or quite as often 
"redemptioners," because they expected to redeem or free 
themselves by work. Many were cheated in making such 
bargains with the "soul stealers," who turned them over to 



n6 THE MAKING OF NEW FRONTIERS 

ship captains. When the vessel reached the colonies, the cap- 
tains sold them to a contractor, who took them to regions in 
want of laborers, and sold them to the farmers. Fortunately 
the farmer-masters were generally kind, and taught the 
newcomer the things that he would need to know when he 
should become a farmer on his own account. 

When the Years of Service were over. — At the end of 
the years of service the indentured servant or redemptioner 
became free. He received a gift from his former master — 
clothing, wheat for seed, and a pig or calf for his future farm. 
The colony usually gave him a tract of land. The women 
received clothing. In this way by a few years of labor a 
man or woman, and even a boy or girl, became a free and 
prosperous colonist in the new country. 

"Naturalization." — -One difficulty seemed to hinder per- 
sons who were not subjects of the king of England from 
settling in the colonies. Governments at that time did not 
acknowledge that their subjects could become citizens of 
another country. Once a German, or once a Frenchman, 
always a German or a Frenchman. But governments, like 
men and women, sometimes do not keep their own rules. 
Frederick the Great of Prussia often invited the subjects of 
other kings to become his subjects. The English parlia- 
ment did the same, and passed acts which are now called 
Naturalization Laws. These laws said that foreigners who 
lived in the colonies for seven years should have the same 
rights as the native-born subjects of the English king. They 
could hold any office except those which the government itself 
filled. The assemblies of the colonies sometimes made the 
time of residence shorter. Parliament also did that, for it 
voted to naturalize the United Brethren or Moravians before 
they left Europe. 

The English and the Spaniards. — The Spaniards in Flor- 
ida watched jealously the increase of the settlements in the 



FOUNDING OF GEORGIA 



117 



Carolinas. They persuaded their Indian allies to attack the 
English. The English in turn attacked the Spaniards or 
sent their own Indian allies against them. 

It is no wonder that the inhabitants of South Carolina 
were glad when they heard that a new colony was to be estab- 
lished between their settlements and Florida. In 1732 
James Oglethorpe and his friends in England obtained the 
right to found a colony south of the Savannah River. They 




King's Bench Prison, London, for Poor Debtors in the 
Eighteenth Century 

gave the name Georgia to the territory in honor of George II, 
who was then king of England. 

Oglethorpe's Plan to aid the Poor Debtors. — Oglethorpe 
was interested in any plan to help the poor. In those days 
the English law allowed a creditor to send to jail any one 
who owed him and could not pay the debt. The jails were 
horrible places, filthy, and overrun with vermin, where 
prisoners held for all sorts of crimes were herded together. 
The jailer was often cruel and cheated his prisoners, if he 
did not torture them. There was little chance that a poor 



n8 



THE MAKING OF NEW FRONTIERS 



debtor once sent to such a place would live to get out. Ogle- 
thorpe thought it better to send such persons to America 
where they might start anew. He chose as the motto of 
the colony, "Not for self, but for others." He expected no 
gain for himself; indeed, he used his own money to further 
the enterprise. 

Founding of Georgia. — Oglethorpe went to Georgia in 
1733. He was accompanied by 35 poor families, selected 
out of a large number willing to go. They went up the 




Settlements in Georgia 
This map shows the size of the original grant of Georgia in 1732 



Savannah River about ten miles and began a town which 
they called Savannah, using the Indian name of the river. 
Like William Penn and Roger Williams, Oglethorpe first 
made peace with the Indians, buying the land from them. 
Savannah was laid out with broad streets and large parks. 
Fifty acres of land were given to each family. Oglethorpe 
received aid from the English government and from wealthy 
friends in buying arms, farm tools, seed, and supplies. The 
people of South Carolina sent ioo head of cattle, a drove of 
hogs, a flock of sheep, and 20 barrels of rice. Several went 
to Savannah with their servants to aid the new colony in 
building houses. Everything seemed hopeful. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 



119 



The Troubles of Georgia. — Poor men who could not make 
a living in England were not well fitted for the hardships of 
a new country. Others came, but progress was slow. The 
colonists complained because they were not allowed at first 
to hold slaves, like the South Carolinians. They were ham- 
pered also by the size of the farms, which were too small to 
be treated as plantations. 
In 1734 some industrious 
Germans entered the colony, 
and two years later a band 
of Scotch Highlanders. Un- 
fortunately the colony was 
soon troubled by Spanish 
attacks, especially after Eng- 
land declared war on Spain 
for cruelly treating English 
sailors caught smuggling in 
the West Indies. In 1743 
Oglethorpe returned to Eng- 
land discouraged. Nine 
years later he and his friends gave up their rights in the 
colony, which then came directly under control of the king. 
A small trading station at Augusta, far inland on the Savannah 
River, gave the Georgians a share in the fur trade with the 
Indians. Georgia remained during the colonial period the 
smallest and weakest of the colonies. 




Contemporary Portrait Showing 

Costume of German man and 

Woman 



QUESTIONS 

1. How many people were there in the English colonies by 1750? What 
was the chief way in which New England increased in population after the first 
settlement? What large bodies of emigrants swelled the numbers in the other 
colonies? 

2. Why did men leave the older settlements for the frontier? What name 
is given in American history to the constant movement of settlers toward the 
frontier? 

3. Why did the Germans, the Scotch, and the Scotch-Irish come to America 



120 THE MAKING OF NEW FRONTIERS 

in the eighteenth century? What part had the Newlanders in securing 
emigrants for America? 

4. Where did the Germans settle? The Scotch-Irish? 

5. Who were the defenders of the frontier from Indian attacks? 

6. How could poor boys and girls get to America? What became of the 
indentured servants when their time was up? 

7. How did foreigners become naturalized citizens of the English colonies? 

8. What was Oglethorpe's plan for aiding English debtors? Why did the 
people of South Carolina welcome neighbors and help them? 

9. Why did Georgia grow slowly? Who took Oglethorpe's place as head of 
the colony? 

EXERCISES 

1. Can people without money enough to pay for their passage come to 
America now? (Any recent immigrant can answer.) 

2. How can a foreigner become a naturalized citizen today? 

REVIEW 

Founding of the English Colonies 

1607. The Virginia Company founds a colony at Jamestown. 

1620. The Pilgrims settle at Plymouth. 

1630. The Massachusetts Bay Company founds a colony at Boston and 
at other places on Massachusetts Bay. 

1634. Baltimore starts a settlement at St. Mary's. 

1636. Emigrants from Massachusetts begin the towns of Connecticut. 

1636. Roger Williams and other exiles from Massachusetts found settle- 
ments in Rhode Island. 

1638. Puritans from England found a colony at New Haven. 

1665. The proprietors of New Jersey begin the active settlement of a new 
colony. Earlier settlers had established themselves at various 
places. 

1670. The proprietors of the Carolinas found Charleston, though not the 
first settlement in the Carolinas. 

1681. Penn sends a body of Quakers to Pennsylvania. Philadelphia founded 
in 1682. 

1733. Oglethorpe begins a settlement at Savannah, Georgia. 



CHAPTER XII 



HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 

Changes in Manner of Living. — As the colonists increased 
in number the principal settlements changed in appearance. 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and a few other places 
began to resemble English cities. The well-to-do built 
houses much like those which were being built by the Lon- 




Home of a Prosperous Colonist in the South 
Westover Mansion, the home of Colonel Byrd, on the James River 

don merchants of the time. Some of them are still standing. 1 
The cities, however, were small, Philadelphia, the largest, 
having only 20,000 inhabitants. 

On the new frontier the settlers lived like the first inhabi- 
tants of Plymouth or Jamestown. They hunted, fished, 

1 Houses built in that style of architecture are called colonial. In Eng- 
land they are called Georgian, because built in the time of King George I or 
George II. The English Georgian houses were commonly of brick, while the 
colonial houses were often of wood. 



122 



HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 



and raised a few articles of food. Some of them were busied 
with the fur trade, which was no longer carried on in the 
older settlements. 

Differences between the Colonies. — The colonies also 
differed from one another, because of differences in climate 
or in the nature of the soil. In South Carolina rice, and 
later indigo and cotton, could be raised. In Virginia the 
main crop was tobacco. Both rice and tobacco were usually 




Colonial or Georgian House 

cultivated on large plantations. Farther north the soil and 
climate were not suited to such crops. The land was divided 
into small farms, and corn, wheat, oats, and beans were 
raised. The farmers lived in villages. In the South the 
people were not usually grouped in villages, except that the 
cabins of servants or slaves stood not far from the planter's 
house. 

What the Colonists did not have. — Many things now 
considered necessary, such as matches, kerosene, gas, elec- 
tricity, and telephones, the colonists did not have. Neither 
did the Europeans of that time have them, for they had not 



FARMING IN THE COLONIES 



123 



been invented. The ordinary settlers were without many 
things then common in Europe, but the planters and mer- 
chants often lived like well-to-do Europeans. 

Open fire-places served for both heating and cooking. 
Fires were carefully banked with ashes to keep them from 
going out, for if they went out the settler would be obliged 
to seek live coals at the house of a neighbor. Churches 
were not heated. People sometimes carried foot-warmers 




A Colonial Kitchen Fire-Place 

to church and kept on their hats, great-coats, and mittens 
during the service. 

The better houses were lighted by candles; in the others 
pine-knot torches were used. Frequently the light from the 
fire-place was enough. Rich people had lamps in which 
sperm oil was burned. These were lighted only on impor- 
tant occasions. 

Farming in the Colonies. — The colonists were mostly 
farmers or planters. Methods of farming used nowadays 
were unheard of even in Europe. The English or European 



124 HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 

farmer managed his land as his forefathers had for a thou- 
sand years. He knew that land, like everything else, wore 
out. He did not understand of what elements soils are com- 
posed, and what must be put into them each year in order 
to obtain large crops. He tried to keep the land in good 
condition by allowing it to lie uncultivated or fallow every 
third year, believing that it would rest and regain its strength. 
He tried what is called rotation of crops, that is, planting 
different crops, as the years came around, on the same piece 
of land. But he did not understand, as does the farmer of 
today, what crops serve this purpose best. 




Wooden Plow, Harrow, and Fork 

Settlers in America had one advantage — there was plenty 
of land. After a field became worn out they could plow up 
another, or move to a region where the soil was rich. The 
crops raised in the North did not exhaust the soil quickly, 
but planters in the South discovered that new fields must 
often be found for tobacco. 

Farming tools were simple and rude. Machinery had not 
been invented. The plow, mostly of wood, scratched a 
shallow furrow. A scythe or even a sickle was used to harvest 
grain. Threshing was done by a hand-flail or by the treading of 
horses or oxen on a hard floor. After the grain was beaten 
from the stalk, it was thrown into the air against the wind 
to blow out the chaff, and was finally passed through sieves. 

Plantations. — Farming on the great plantations of the 
South was very different. Some plantations contained many 



COLONIAL INDUSTRIES 



125 



thousand acres. The work of plowing, planting, hoeing, and 
gathering tobacco was done at first by indentured servants. 
In the eighteenth century it was done mostly by slaves. As 
slaves were ignorant, an overseer for every twenty negroes was 
necessary. The profits were often large. A few planters are 
said to have made the great 
sum of £20,000 to £80,000 a 
year. But the method was 
ruinous, because no attempt 
was made to put back into the 
soil what the tobacco plants 
were steadily taking out. After 
a time the fields were "dead." 
Rice growing on the planta- 
tions of South Carolina was 
not so profitable, because ex- 
penses were greater. Low, wet 
fields were needed, and the 
laborer must often stand in water or mud. The sun was 
hot, and malaria was a common disease. If slaves sickened 
and died, planters lost heavily. In the Piedmont region of 
the South the farms were often small, and the crops like 
those raised in the North. 




Spinning Wheel and Colonial 
Loom 




Carrying Tobacco to the Wharf in Virginia 

Colonial Industries. — Much was done on farms and plan- 
tations besides raising crops. Clothing, utensils, and house- 



126 



HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 




hold supplies must be prepared. The farmer's house was 
a workshop. Roads were few and poor. Rivers and the 
ocean were the natural highways. Little trade went on be- 
tween the settlements. This was not the only reason for 
household industries. In England and Europe many trades 

were still carried on in homes 
or in shops connected with 
them. There were no fac- 
^ tories, for machinery and 
power to run it had not been 
invented. The English 
weaver got his thread or yarn 
Up from merchants, wove cloth 
at home, and sold it to the 
Tinder Box, Flint, and Steel merc hant. This was called 

the "domestic system." In the colonies the women spun the 
yarn, wove the cloth, and cut and finished the clothing for 
their families. Spinning wheels were found in every home. 
In Massachusetts in 1656 every family was 
required by law to teach its girls to spin. 
Each woman was expected to spin three 
pounds of yarn, cotton or wool, every week 
for thirty weeks of the year. If she failed 
she might be fined. 

Men made many things with ax and 
jack-knife. Plows and harrows were 
mostly of wood. Boys whittled butter 
paddles for the dairy, or "box traps and ffiSatfeflpM \ 
"figure-four" traps for catching animals. 

Many things which the planter needed Mould for mak- 
were made by slaves, but other things he 
obtained in exchange for his rice or tobacco. The ships 
which came from England for these brought costly clothing, 
crockery, pictures, and furniture. The northern settler was 




RESTRICTIONS ON THE COLONISTS 127 

also eager to buy English goods. His trouble was to find 
enough that the English merchants wanted in exchange. In 
those days neither England nor any other European country 
needed to buy food of America. At first the settler had furs 
to sell but by and by most of the fur bearing animals were 
killed or driven inland. 

An English writer in 1720 explained in the quaint style of 
his time the difficulties of the New Englanders, whose delight, 
said he, " is to wear English manufactures." " They have 
no silver mines, nothing to send but pitch, tar, turpentine, and 
ships, which would go but a little way toward clothing such 
a number of people." And yet, said he, they make " a shift 
to scrape up about £150,000 to pay for the goods they buy 
of us." 

England and Colonial Industries. — It was natural that as 
colonial towns grew their wants could not be supplied wholly 
by the ordinary household industries nor by the trade with 
England. Moreover, workmen who came to the colonies were 
anxious to keep at their usual tasks. Soon cloths, for example, 
were made of finer quality than those woven heretofore in the 
homes of the settlers. A governor of New York wrote to the 
officials in England that he had seen " serge made upon Long 
Island that any man may wear." These goods were sold not 
only in the settlements near by, but also in the South and in 
the West Indies. 

The colonists began to make hats. They had an ad- 
vantage over the English hatters, because beaver fur came 
from the colonies. Hats made in New England and New 
York were shipped as far as Spain. When English hatters 
and cloth makers heard of these manufactures, they became 
alarmed, fearing that they would be unable to sell their goods 
in the colonies. The English parliament shared their fears, 
and passed laws forbidding woolen goods and hats to be sold 
from one colony to another or even from one town to another. 



128 HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 

The shops of weavers were almost as common in the colonies 
as those of blacksmiths. Weavers often traveled about the 
colonies as harvest hands do to-day. On the plantations in 
the South some slave was usually taught the trade of the 
weaver. The laws of parliament did not keep the colonists 
from making cloth on their own rude looms, or the weaver 
from doing the work for them in a shop by the wayside. 
What they could not do was to send their products by 
wagon or boat for trade with neighboring colonies or distant 
countries. 

The Shoe and Leather Trade. — The shoe and leather 
trade fared better. The Massachusetts government made 
laws to prevent the waste of hides. Shoe-makers who came 
from England taught the farmers to make shoes. The farmer 
spent part of the long winter days in making shoes for his 
family, but other men gave all their time to making shoes 
for sale. Soon after Lynn was settled it had many shoe- 
makers, working in their homes or in small shops. Shoes 
made in Massachusetts were sold in the other colonies. The 
English government did not interfere with this trade. 

The Iron Industry. — Another trade which the English 
parliament was willing to permit to some extent was the 
making of iron. The first furnaces used ore known as " bog 
iron," found in swampy regions. Later better ore was found 
in the hills of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and 
Virginia. English iron manufacturers were glad to buy pig 
iron from the colonial furnaces, for otherwise they must buy 
it from Swedes and Russians. They did not know what rich 
ores existed in England. Moreover, they did not understand 
how to use coal in melting the ores, and their supply of char- 
coal was running low. They did not, however, wish the 
colonists to work up the pig iron into plates or tools of iron 
or steel which could be sold and thus lessen the sale of their 
own products. Parliament thought as they did and forbade 



THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 129 

the colonists to set up any iron or steel mills for such 
purposes. 

Many farmers, especially in New England, made nails and 
tacks and simple tools to sell to their neighbors. A hammer, 
an anvil, and a small furnace in the chimney-corner of the 
living-room formed the outfit necessary for this, which was 
another of the home or domestic industries of colonial times. 

Bounties for Naval Stores. — While the English govern- 
ment tried to keep the colonists from manufacturing things 
already made in England, it was ready to pay rewards or 
bounties on every ton of " naval stores," or material for use 
in building ships. An official was ordered to mark trees 
suitable for use in the navy. The bounty on turpentine 
was profitable to the Carolinas, which sent 60,000 barrels to 
England every year. Virginia and Maryland sent over an- 
nually a thousand tons of hemp. But New England could 
not raise hemp and could get better prices for her lumber in 
the West Indies than in England. 

The Old Colonial System. — W T hy did the English govern- 
ment attempt to say to the colonists what they should make 
and what they should not make? Nowadays the D&jtf>le of 




Some Hats of Colonial Times 

the English colonies are permitted to manufacture what they 
please, but in the eighteenth century all governments had 
a very different idea of the purpose of colonies. They 
looked upon them as places from which they might draw the 
raw material which they did not have at home. If the 
colonies were in the Far East, it was spices, drugs, and pre- 
cious stones that were wanted. If they were in the West, 
it was first of all gold and silver, next furs, then timber 



130 HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 

and tobacco. To pay for these their merchants expected to 
send to the colonies clothing, furniture, and tools, indeed 
everything that the colonists had learned to need in their 
former homes. 

In its treatment of colonies the English government was 
more liberal than any other government of those days, but 
another century was to come before English statesmen began 
to think of the colonies as a Greater Britain or an Expansion 
of England in which the people should have the same rights 
and privileges that Englishmen had at home. In some ways 
the Old Colonial System favored the northern lumberman or 
the southern planter as much as it favored the English mer- 
chant and manufacturer. The bounties on naval stores have 
already been mentioned. The system also required English- 
men to use only English colonial sugar and tobacco. The 
New Englander, whose efforts to make hats and cloths were 
checked, could build ships, for which he had an abundance of 
the best timber at his very doors. As many as seventy ships 
were launched in a single year in New England ports. The 
ships of the colonists were found on every sea. 

The Navigation Acts formed another part of the colonial 
system. They had first been intended to injure the Dutch 
merchants and shipowners by compelling nearly all trade 
between the Continent and the English colonies to pass 
through English ports and the goods to be carried in English 
ships. This rule helped the colonial shipowner, who shared 
in the business equally with the English shipowner. But 
the colonial merchant who wanted to send sugar, tobacco, or 
naval stores directly to the Continent, did not relish the plan. 
Indeed some shipmasters paid no attention to the rule, and 
took both sugar and tobacco directly to the Continent. If 
they were arrested by officers sent to the colonies for that 
purpose, colonial juries usually decided that they were not 
guilty. 



TRADE WITH THE WEST INDIES 131 

Trade with the West Indies. — The northern colonies found 
trade with the West Indies very profitable. Planters in Bar- 
bados, Jamaica, and other English islands, gained such large 
profits from raising sugar that they did not take time to raise 
food or cut the timber they needed. They preferred to buy 
such things of the Atlantic coast settlers. Hundreds of ships 
went from New England, New York, and the Delaware 
River, loaded with horses, oxen, sheep, hogs, fish, corn, peas, 
beans, oats, and flour. Planters sometimes bought house- 
frames all ready to set up, and staves and hoops for sugar 
barrels. The northern ship-masters took in return sugar, mo- 
lasses, and usually some money. The money they found 
useful in buying in England articles which were not made 
in America. 

Colonial Smuggling. — Colonial traders carried on a sim- 
ilar trade with the French and Spanish West Indies. They 
found this more profitable, for the English islands taxed their 
products higher than the French islands, and so the colo- 
nial traders had to pay more for the sugar and molasses, and 
did not bring back so much money. Moreover, the English 
islands could not furnish them with half the molasses they 
wanted. They had no right to trade with foreign islands, 
for foreign governments, like the English government, in- 
sisted that trade with their colonies was for their merchants 
alone. French and Spanish planters, however, were usually 
ready to buy of the English colonists, because French and 
Spanish merchants could not sell food so cheaply. The 
consequence was that many colonial ship-masters became 
smugglers. When the English planters found that the 
colonists were buying so much sugar and molasses from 
the French, they complained to the home government, 
which attempted in 1733 to stop the trade by placing 
high taxes on such products brought into the northern 
colonies. Nevertheless, the smuggling went on, and the 



132 



HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 



colonists paid little attention to the " Sugar Act," as the 
law was called. 

Fisheries. — Many sailors, especially in New England, 
were engaged in fishing for cod and mackerel off the 
coast or on the Banks of Newfoundland. Sailors learned to 
capture the sperm whale and to obtain oil from the blubber. 
Towns like Marblehead, Nantucket, and New Bedford were 
famous for their success in whaling. 

Money. — Money is needed to carry on business. Those 
who have something to exchange cannot readily find the per- 
son who wants it and who has something they are willing to 
receive. For this reason the first Plymouth colonists used 
polished shells and the Virginians used tobacco as money. 
English coins did not remain long in the colonies, chiefly 
because the colonists always bought more of the English 
merchants than they sold to them and were obliged to pay 
the difference in coin. Spanish coins were the most common. 
After 1728 the new Spanish "dollar," with its halves and 
quarters, and Portuguese coins were widely used. 

Paper Money. — During the wars with the French, Mas- 
sachusetts, having no money in its treasury to pay the sol- 
diers, ordered 
paper money, or 
promises to pay, 
to be given them. 
Massachusetts 
frequently chose 
this easy way of 
paying its debts. 



[ioo>.]'S?>_— — t^ijt 'Tis Aarf m nunierkii ffc ^/zi. The same thing 

was done by most 
of the other col- 
onies. The difficulty was that the promises to pay were not 
kept, and that it took at various times from seven to twenty- 



W%M^§M^uS§MmM&^: 



'rZZgRJf^Lxw of the Colony of 

JTl^ NCW- Tort , THIS Bill SHALL 

pafe current "V^T for. FIVE 
POUNDS. ElI New York, 
the Second Day or April, One 

(Thoufand Seven Hundred anJ Fifty 




New York Colonial Paper Money 



SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 



^3 



six dollars in paper to obtain one dollar in coin. The Eng- 
lish government attempted to stop the issue of such money, 
but without much success. 

Colonial Schools. — One consequence of the lack of money 
was inability to provide good schools. In several colonies 
the legislatures had voted that schools should be established 
by all towns containing a certain number of families. Mas- 
sachusetts threatened to fine towns which did not obey the 
law. Twice the fines were doubled, but it was easier to pay 
them than to support teachers. In Pennsylvania parents 
who did not teach their children to read and write were 
threatened with a fine of £5. The growth of schools in the 
South was still slower, because the inhabitants were more 
scattered. In Virginia a few private schools were founded 
with money left by prosperous planters. Sons of planters 
were sent to England for their education or were taught 
by private teachers. Public schools in the colonies were 
only for boys. Girls sometimes learned to read and write 
in private schools. 





*wmw 



COLLEGK OF WlLLIAM AND MARY 

After a drawing made about 1740 



Colleges. — Harvard remained the only college until just 
at the close of the seventeenth century, when a college was 
founded in Virginia, and named William and Mary for the 
monarchs then reigning in England. A few years later, in 



134 



HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 



1 701, a college was established in Connecticut and named 
after Elihu Yale, a wealthy merchant who gave it a large 
sum. Soon other colleges were founded — at Princeton in 
New Jersey, at Providence in Rhode Island, and at Han- 
over in New Hampshire. Benjamin Franklin was one of 
the founders of an "Academy" at Philadelphia, which later 
became the University of Pennsylvania. It differed from 
the other colleges in making the study of the English language 
as important as the study of Latin and Greek. 

The main purpose of the colleges was to train clergymen. 
For this reason older students in Yale were required to " read 
some part of the Old Testament out of Hebrew into Greek 
in the morning and to turn some part of the New Testament 
out of English or Latin into Greek at the time of the evening 
recitation." Dartmouth college was 
originally intended to train Indians to 
teach Christianity to their tribes. In 
Franklin's "Academy" other needs of 
the community were equally remem- 
bered. Even in Philadelphia, a 
young man wishing to study law or 
medicine had to do so in the office of 
a lawyer or a doctor, and not at a 
college. 

Printing. — Most of the books in 
the colonies were brought from Eng- 
land and Europe, but a few books 
and pamphlets were printed in 
America. A printing press was set 
up in Massachusetts as early as 1638. Newspapers were 
rare. This is not surprising, because there were none in Eng- 
land until 1622. The Boston News Letter, begun in 1704, 
was the first in America. One was started in New York 
in 1725, and another, by Franklin, in Philadelphia, eight 




Franklin's Printing 
Press 

In the custody of the Smith- 
sonian Institution 



LANGUAGE IN THE COLONIES 



135 



Poor Richard, 1733, 



A N 

Almanack 

FortheYearofChrift 

1 



733 



years later. All these papers looked like small leaflets and 
were published once a week. 

Almanacs were very popular. One which Franklin pub- 
lished was called Poor Richard's Almanac. It contained, be- 
sides the calendar and list 
of eclipses, many bits of 
history, proverbs, and 
practical advice. Books 
and newspapers were 
costly, but everybody 
could have Poor Richard's 
Almanac. Franklin's 
rhymes and jokes and 
quaint sayings taught his 
readers many things, 
above all to be frugal and 
industrious. One of his 
sayings was, "Sloth like 
Rust consumes faster than 
Labor wears;" another, 
everywhere familiar, 
"Early to bed, and early to 
rise, makes a man healthy, 
wealthy, and wise." 

Language in the Colo- 
nies. — Though many of 
the colonists came from 
the continent of Europe, 
English was the language 
spoken almost everywhere. It soon began to differ some- 
what from the English spoken in England, because the colo- 
nists invented names for things in America which they had 
not seen in England or the names of which they had forgotten. 
For example, they called birds after their colors, like " black- 



Being the Firft after LEAP YEAR: 

And makes Jrm the Creation Years 

By the Account of the Ealrern Greeks 7241 

By the Latin Church, when O em. y S932 

By Hie Computation of H^.W n$z 

By the Reman Crfronology jo"82 

By the Jev/'ijb Rabbies J494 

Wherein ts contained 
The Lunations, Eclipfes. Judgment of 

the Weather, Spring Tides, Planets Motions & 
mutual AfpcQs, Sun and Moon's Rifing and Set- 
ting, Length of Days, Time of High Water, 
Fairs, Courtr, and obfcrvable Days 
Fitted tothe Latitude of Forty Degrees, 
and a Meridian of Five Hours Weft from Lendm, 
but may without fenfihle Error, lerve all the ad- 
jacent Places, even from Newfoundland to Soutb- 

Carolwa. 



By RICHJtXD SJUND£RS y ?hilom. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
Printed and fold by B. FRANKLIN, at the New 
^^^^ Printing Office near the Market. 

The Third JrnpreJfioa 

Reduced Facsimile of the Title-Page 
of Poor Richard's Almanac 



136 



HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 



bird" or "bluebird," or after their cry, like "catbird" and 
"mocking-bird." From the Indians they borrowed many 
names, such as moose, chipmunk, pecan, tobacco, canoe, ham- 
mock. The Indian names for rivers and lakes were often kept. 
Religion. — The colonists were very religious. Virginia, 
Maryland, and the Carolinas adopted the 
Episcopal or English Church. Every one was 
obliged to pay for its services. Maryland had 
originally been planned as a refuge for the 
Roman Catholics, but the Protestants in time 
outnumbered them twelve to one. In Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut most people were 
Congregationalists. Baptists were numerous 
in Rhode Island and North Carolina, and 
Quakers in New Jersey 
and Pennsylvania. Wher- 
ever the Scotch -Irish 
settled, Presbyterian 
churches were founded. 

Superstitions. — The 
colonists had many strange 
notions, now called super- 
stitions. One was a belief 
in witchcraft, which they 
brought over from England 
and Europe. There the belief in witches was widespread. 
If butter was slow in coming when cream was churned, the 
colonist thought that witches were in it and must be driven 
out by dropping a red-hot horse-shoe into the cream. If 
pigs were sick they were supposed to be bewitched. 

Horse-shoes or broomsticks were often placed over door- 
ways to keep out witches. To be a witch, that is, possessed 
by an evil spirit, was regarded as worse than a misfortune 
— it was a crime. Many hundreds had been put to death 





f t s «' ••silL< 



[# 




Old South Church, Boston 



COLONIAL AMUSEMENTS 137 

in Europe as witches. Salem, Massachusetts, gained an 
unhappy fame because of a panic about witches which seized 
the village early in 1692. Certain girls, troubled with what 
is now called hysteria, said they were tormented by witches, 
and accused neighbors, chiefly poor, ignorant, old women. 
Before the panic was over twenty persons had been found 
guilty by the courts and executed. This superstition lingered 
a long time after the persecutions at Salem ceased. 

Amusements in the Colonies. — The colonists had much 
hard work to do, but they found time to play. When corn- 
husking season came, or the frame of a house was to be raised, 
the neighbors gathered to help. As soon as the work was 
done all sat down to tables loaded with good things. Some- 
times the men joined in a wolf hunt. The chase was always 
exciting and ended in the destruction of a dangerous pest. 

The planters enjoyed horse-racing and fox-hunting. The 
Dutch introduced several healthful sports — bowling, skating, 
and sleigh riding. In Boston the boys kicked balls back and 
forth, somewhat after the manner of football. They had 
many other games such as boys play nowadays. 

In New York and the southern colonies an occasional band 
of actors from England played in the chief towns. The 
Puritans, like the Puritans in England, were opposed to 
the theatre, and would not allow plays in their towns. 

Dress. — The well-to-do colonists followed English fash- 
ions. The planters and merchants especially tried to dress like 
the London merchants with whom they dealt. On Sundays 
and holidays the men wore wigs of long, powdered hair, tied 
in a cue, three-cornered hats covered with lace, coats of plush 
or broadcloth, often in bright colors, embroidered vests, tight- 
fitting knee-breeches, long silk stockings, and pointed shoes 
with silver buckles. The Puritans and Quakers dressed more 
simply. Indeed, few of the colonists could afford finery, and 
most of them dressed in homespun or leather or deerskin. 



138 HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED 



QUESTIONS 

1. How did the appearance of the older settlements change? Where were 
colonists to be found who were living as the earlier settlers had lived? 

2. Why did the colonies differ greatly in occupations and manner of life? 
In what ways did they differ? 

3. Is it strange that the colonists did not have many things which we 
now have? Name some of the things that we use every day which they did 
not have. How were the houses heated and lighted? 

4. Why were the colonists not as careful in farming as farmers today? 

5. How was a plantation managed? What did the overseer do? Who 
were the laborers on plantations? What did they raise? In what part of the 
South was farming like that in the North? 

6. Why did the colonists do so many things in their own houses instead 
of doing them in factories as today? What work was done in the homes as 
domestic industries? 

7. What industries were checked in the colonies? Why did parliament 
tell the colonists what they should make and what they should not make? 

8. Why did parliament pass the Navigation Acts in the first place? What 
products did parliament require the colonists to send to England? 

9. What profitable trade did the northern colonies find? Why did par- 
liament try to stop part of this trade? Did the plan of parliament succeed? 

10. What did the colonists use as money? Why was colonial paper money 
not a good kind of money? 

11. Why were the colonial schools few in number? Why did the southern 
colonies have even fewer schools than the northern colonies? 

12. What colleges were founded in colonial days? What was the main 
object of the people in founding colleges? In what way did Franklin's Acad- 
emy at Philadelphia differ from the others? 

13. Why was Poor Richard's Almanac so widely read and so popular? 
What useful things did it teach the people? 

14. How did the English language in the colonies differ from English as 
spoken in England? 

EXERCISES 

1. Visit a museum and examine all articles which illustrate colonial life, 
and tell about these in class. 

2. Gather pictures of colonial houses, money, farm tools, furniture, etc. 

3. Make out a list of the domestic or home industries carried on by men and 
women in colonial times. Underscore any which are still found in the homes. 

4. Collect examples of superstitions or strange notions still known, whether 
believed or not. 

5. Make two lists of amusements — one for colonial times, another of those 
common in some part of the United States today. 



CHAPTER XIII 

HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 

Disputes about Government. — Trade was not the only 
question upon which disputes arose between the colonists and 
the English officials. As the colonies increased in importance 
it became difficult to say how far they should rule themselves 
and how far they should be ruled by the officials sent from 




Great Seal granted to the New England Colonies in 1685 

England. At first the colonists governed themselves almost 
independently. But after the colonies became large, the 
government interfered more often in the management of their 
affairs. This interference was carried so far that the colonists 
thought their rights were in danger. The disputes which 
took place were commonly about what the colonial govern- 
ments should be permitted to do, rather than about the way 
in which they should be organized. 

Local Government. — The colonists, like Americans now- 
adays, had local governments, managing villages or cities 
or counties, and provincial governments, for whole colonies, 
corresponding to the present state governments. 



140 HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 

In New England the town meeting, a general meeting of 
the men, settled such matters as the care of the common 
fields, the roads, ferries, bridges, and fences. Boston retained 
the town form of government until long after the Revolution. 
At the town meeting were chosen the town officials — select- 
men, constables, fence- viewers, field-drivers, pound-keepers 
for stray cattle, and tithing-men to arrest loafers and Sabbath 
breakers and to keep order among the boys at church. 

In the southern colonies, including Maryland, as many of 
the settlers lived on large farms or plantations, nothing like 
the town meeting was convenient. Instead, the governor 
of the colony appointed justices of the peace who managed 
the affairs of each county. The middle colonies, New York 
and Pennsylvania, used a mixture of the two systems. 
Both systems were familiar to the colonists before they left 
England. 

Provincial Government. — Legislatures existed in every 
colony. They were modeled after the English parliament. 
At the head of the colonial government was a governor. In 
Connecticut and Rhode Island he was chosen by the people, 
in Pennsylvania * and Maryland he was appointed by the 
proprietor, and in the other colonies by the king. Massa- 
chusetts originally had the right to choose a governor, but 
lost it during the reign of Charles II. 

Laws adopted by the colonial legislatures might be vetoed 
by the governor or disapproved by the government in Eng- 
land. One difficulty was that it took two or three years 
to obtain either approval or disapproval from the English 
government. The decision, when made, sometimes annulled 
laws adopted many years before. For example, in 1754 the 
king disapproved of laws made by North Carolina in 171 5. 
The Pennsylvanians were required by their charter to send 
each law to England for approval within five years of its pas- 

1 Delaware had the same governor as Pennsylvania. 



PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT 



141 



sage, but they avoided the requirement by making the laws 
good for a period less than five years. Sometimes the vetoes 
disapproved bad laws, but often they annulled laws which 
were reasonable; for example, certain laws of Massachusetts 
which simply repeated rights claimed for Englishmen in the 
Great Charter five hundred years before. 




Faneuil Hall, Boston, in Colonial Times 
"The Cradle of Liberty" 

One thing which made such vetoes disagreeable to the 
colonists was the fact that the English kings ceased after 
1707 to veto acts of parliament. Consequently the veto was 
used only to prevent colonial legislatures from making laws. 
This seemed unfair. If parliament could make laws for 
Englishmen at home, why should not the colonial assem- 
blies do the same for Englishmen in the colonies? 

As the kings had begun to rule through officials who re- 
mained in office only with the consent of a majority of the 
members of parliament, it was parliament, and not the king, 
that did the vetoing. Parliament became a many-headed 



142 HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 

monarch, which, unfortunately, was as likely to misunder- 
stand the needs of the colonies as ever Charles I or his two 
sons. 

Legislatures and Governors. — The legislatures of New 
York and Massachusetts had many disputes with the gover- 
nors. One New York governor spent upon his own pleasures 
money which the legislature had raised for new fortifications. 
The legislature then appointed a treasurer to take charge of 
expenditures, and was not very generous in the amounts 
which it voted. The governor threatened to have the taxes 
levied on the colony by parliament. The legislature finally 
declared that only the representatives chosen by the people 
had the right to vote away their money. This was the same 
language which parliament had used a hundred years before 
in its disputes with James I and Charles I. 

The legislators thought that a governor would be more 
likely to listen to their wishes if he depended upon them 
every year for his salary. In this practice they were simply 
following the example set by parliament in dealing with 
kings. One Massachusetts governor refused to accept the 
sums voted to him as salary because his orders from the 
home government declared that he must insist upon a 
permanent, rather than an annual, settlement of his salary. 

The English government made another blunder in failing 
to entrust the management of colonial affairs to a single set 
of officials. Colonial business was distributed among differ- 
ent departments of the English administration, as English 
business was, and sometimes the two were badly confused. 

Attacks on Colonial Charters. — At different times, some of 
them long before 1750, plans were proposed in England to 
make the colonies more dependent upon the will of officials 
appointed by the home government. In 1684 the charter 1 

1 A charter described the rights of colonists, for example, their right to 
choose a governor or to select representatives to their assembly. 



ATTACK ON COLONIAL CHARTERS 



143 



of Massachusetts was taken away. The people of Connecti- 
cut feared the same misfortune. There is a story that when 
the royal agent went before the general assembly of Con- 
necticut to demand the charter, the debate was purposely 
prolonged until late in the evening. Finally the candles 
were blown out, and when they were relighted the charter 
had disappeared. Some one had carried it off and hidden it 
in the hollow of an oak, known 
thereafter as the Charter Oak. 

After James II became king he 
made Edmund Andros governor 
of all the colonies north and east 
of the Delaware River; that is, 
New Jersey, New York, and all 
New England. Andros was given 
power to make laws, raise taxes, 
and settle disputes in his own 
court. In this James was treat- 
ing the liberties of Englishmen in 
the colonies with the same con- 
tempt with which he treated their 
rights in England. The revolu- 
tion of 1688 soon sent the king into exile. 

In 1689, when the people of Massachusetts learned what 
was taking place in England, they seized Andros, threw him 
into Castle William in Boston harbor, and then sent him 
back to England. Two years later Massachusetts received 
a new charter, but one which did not permit the people to 
choose their governor. Plymouth was at this time united 
with Massachusetts. 

Ten years later a party in parliament attempted to pass 
a bill taking away the charters of Rhode Island and Connecti- 
cut, the only colonies which could still elect their governors, 
and depriving the proprietors of other colonies of their con- 




Sir Edmund Andros 

After the portrait in the State 
Library at Hartford 



144 HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 




trol. The purpose was to weaken the Quakers and the Puri- 
tans, the first being strong in Pennsylvania, and the second 
in New England. 

Bacon's Rebellion. — Sometimes troubles in the colonies 
arose over what the governor left undone, rather than over 
what he did. Governor Berkeley of Virginia in 1676 neg- 
lected to defend from Indian attacks the planters on the fron- 
tier, then a short distance northwest of Richmond. He was 

apparently afraid of 
losing a profitable trade 
with the Indians. 
When the planters 
asked for protection 
he not only refused to 
listen to them, but 
ordered them to send 
no more petitions. 
The Virginians decided 
to help themselves, 
and under the leader- 
ship of Nathaniel Bacon, whose plantation had also suffered 
from Indian raids, marched against the Indians. 

No sooner were Bacon and his followers on the frontier 
fighting the Indians than Berkeley proclaimed them rebels 
for waging war against his will. Bacon prepared for war 
with the governor, and, it is said, suggested that Virginia, 
Maryland, and Carolina join together, choose their own gov- 
ernors, and manage their own affairs. He drove the governor 
out of Jamestown, and set fire to the village so that Berkeley 
might not again take refuge there. Bacon's sudden death 
deprived the Virginians of their leader and the rebellion 
ended. About thirty of his followers were put to death and 
their property seized. But the discontent was so great that 
Berkeley was recalled by the English government. 



Bacon Quarter Branch 

Where Bacon had a plantation near the falls ol 

the James 



PUNISHMENTS 



145 



Customs Officials. — There were many other officers in 
the colonies besides the governors who were appointed by the 
king. The most unpopular were those whose duty it was 
to enforce the trade laws, like the Navigation Acts and the 
Sugar Act. When juries of colonists would not convict 
those who disobeyed these laws, the English government 
set up what were called "Admiralty Courts," 1 where a judge 
appointed by the king decided without a jury whether the 
person accused was guilty. This made the trade laws all 
the more unpopular, so that 
many men thought it was not 
wrong to disobey them. 

Punishments. — In the pun- 
ishment of ordinary offenses or 
crimes the colonial courts were 
less harsh than the English 
courts. In England about 200 
crimes were punished with 
death. Among these were sheep 
stealing, pocket picking, even if 
the amount was no more than 
a shilling, and stealing an article 
worth five shillings from a shop. 
In the colonies many crimes 
were also punished with death, 
and handbills were often circulated explaining the crime 
and holding up the fate of the criminal as a warning to 
evil-doers. 

The purpose of several of the more ordinary punishments 
was the disgrace of the wrong-doer in the sight of his neigh- 
bors. The whipping-post, the pillory, and the stocks were 
in common use. The maker of the first stocks in Boston 
was sentenced to sit in them an hour because the magistrates 

1 Special courts to try offenses against the shipping laws. 




Whipping-Post 



Executions were public, 



146 HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 



thought he charged too much. A man in North Carolina 
who had stolen five dollars' worth of goods was sentenced to 
thirty-nine lashes on the bare back. In England he would 
have been hanged. 

French and Spanish Colonies. — The English colonies, 
notwithstanding their disputes with their governors or other 
officials, had a great many more rights of self-government 
than either the Spanish or the French. 
As ordinary Frenchmen had little or no 
share in the government at home, it is 
not surprising that they had none in the 
colonies. Each colony had a governor 
to command the soldiers and an intend- 
ant to manage affairs. The governor, 
intendant, and judges were appointed by 
the king. There were no juries. The 
Spanish colonists had town councils or 
cabildos, but no assemblies representing 
a whole colony. 

QUESTIONS 

Pillory i. What two mistakes did the rulers of England 

make in governing their colonies? Upon what kind 
of subjects were the disputes between England and the colonists most 
common? 

2. What did the New England town meeting do? What were the names of 
the chief officers in a town? Why was there no town meeting in the southern 
colonies? What took the place of it there? Where did the colonists get their 
ideas about local government? 

3. Describe the general government of a colony. Who appointed the gov- 
ernors? Who chose the members of the legislatures or assemblies? Were the 
colonial legislatures completely free to make laws for the colonies? Why did 
the colonists think the veto of their laws by the English ministers unjust? 

4. What disputes did the legislatures and governors have over the govern- 
ment of the colonies? How did the legislators manage to hold the governors in 
check? What words did the representatives of the colonists use which Eng- 
lishmen had used in quarrels with James I and Charles I? 

5. What officials of England were concerned with the government of the 




QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 147 

colonies? What additional blunder did England make in the management of 
colonial affairs? 

6. What colonies lost their charters at one time or another? Why was it a 
disadvantage for a colony to lose its charter? 

7. How did Massachusetts get rid of Edmund Andros? Why did the people 
of Massachusetts dislike him so much? 

8. Why did the Virginians, led by Bacon, rebel against the rule of Berkeley? 
Did the rebels fail or succeed? 

q. What was the purpose of the colonists in punishing wrong-doers? Which 
were more severe, the colonial or the English laws for punishing crime? Which 
had the more liberties, the English, French, or Spanish colonies? 

EXERCISES 

1. Learn about the present local government in some part of the United 
States. Does this resemble most closely the local government in the northern, 
middle, or southern colonies? 

2. Find out what town or city officers now perform the duties of the officers 
of an early New England town. 

3. Make out a list of the officers, appointed by England, mentioned in this 
chapter, who had anything to do with governing the colonies. 

4. Prepare a list of crimes which are now punished severely, and tell how 
the mode of treatment differs from the colonial method. 




In the Stocks 



CHAPTER XIV 
CONQUEST OF THE FRENCH COLONIES IN AMERICA 

Crossing the Appalachian Barrier. — Before 1750 there 
were few English settlers beyond the great Appalachian bar- 
rier. Traders from the Carolinas and Georgia had ventured 
westward as far as the Mississippi. Traders from Virginia, 
Pennsylvania, and New York were beginning to find their 
way across the mountains to the banks of the Ohio. As the 
population of the colonies on the coast increased, it was 
certain that emigrants would follow in the footsteps of the 
traders. A vast unoccupied region stretched between the 
Appalachians and the French villages in the Illinois country. 
Moreover, the French settlements were small, containing 
altogether about 500 inhabitants. 

Western Claims. — The region between the Appalachians 
and the Mississippi was not considered either by England 
or by France as vacant. The French claimed that their 
territory extended eastward to the mountains, while the 
English declared that they owned the whole country as far 
as the Pacific. According to the original charters of Virginia, 
Massachusetts, and Connecticut, their lands extended to the 
South Sea, which was supposed to be not far distant. When 
it was discovered how far away the Pacific Ocean was, the 
colonists simply lengthened their claims. 1 After all, the ques- 
tion whether the region beyond the mountains belonged to 
the French or to the English had to be decided by force. 

1 When the Carolinas and Georgia received charters the Pacific Ocean was 
made their western border, although the royal government knew by that 
time how distant the Pacific Ocean was. 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH RIVALRY 



149 



French and English Rivalry. — In 1749 the French and Eng- 
lish were each wide awake to what the other was doing. They 
had just finished a war into which they had been drawn as 
allies of Frederick II of Prussia and Maria Theresa of Austria. 
They had fought in India and America as well as in Europe. 




EASTERN NORTH AMERICA 

AT THE BEGINNING OF 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 



300 400 500 



The territory occupied by the English is dotted 

The French governor of Canada and the English in Vir- 
ginia now took steps looking toward the occupation of the 
Ohio country. The French crossed from Lake Erie to Lake 
Chautauqua, and from there to the Allegheny River. They 
floated past the spot where Pittsburgh now stands, and went 
on as far as the Great Miami, returning to Lake Erie by the 



150 CONQUEST OF THE FRENCH COLONIES 




Maumee. Wherever they saw English traders, they warned 
them to leave the country. 

The Ohio Company. — While this expedition was complet- 
ing its work, some Virginians, among them Lawrence and 
Augustine Washington, brothers of George Washington, 
formed a land company. The company was granted half a 
million acres south of the Ohio, between the Monongahela and 
the Kanawha rivers, on the condition of settling a hundred 
families in the region and of building and holding a fort. 

- ,-.:— .-jjiil^ ~7- r ^~„..-~^~~r-~—>.- One of the 

;^;|s? best routes from 
Virginia into 
the Ohio coun- 
try lay along 
the upper Po- 
tomac to Cum- 
berland, Mary- 
land, where 
Will's Creek 

breaks through the mountains. This route crossed the ridges 
into the valley of the Youghiogheny or of the Monongahela. 
In 1753 the Ohio Company prepared to construct a fort near 
where the Allegheny and the Monongahela join to form the 
Ohio. The spot was admirable as a half-way station and a 
gateway through which emigrants might pass on to the 
region lower down on the Ohio. At the same time a few 
daring Virginia families took up lands along the Monongahela. 
Advance of the French. — Meanwhile Governor Duquesne 
of Canada sent a thousand men to the Ohio country, order- 
ing them to build forts and hold the mountain passes 
against English intruders. They built a log fort at Presque 
Isle, near Erie, cut a road southward to French Creek, 
and seized an English trading post at the junction of 
French Creek and the Allegheny River. They were now 



Cumberland and the Narrows of Will's 
Mountain, Maryland 

The natural passage or gateway through the first range 
of mountains on the route to the Ohio country 



ADVANCE OF THE FRENCH 



151 



only 120 miles from the Forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburgh 
is situated. 

The news alarmed the Ohio Company, which had not 
yet built its fort. The governor of Virginia decided to 
send a messenger to warn the French that they had entered 
territory which was not theirs, and to demand that they 
withdraw. For the perilous journey Major George Washing- 
ton was finally chosen. Although only twenty-one, he had 




The Ohio Country and the new French Forts 
Showing especially the rivers, mountain barrier, and new French posts 

already been several years on the Virginia frontier, engaged in 
surveying. He was a skilled woodsman and a hardy trav- 
eler. The death of his brother Lawrence had brought him 
an estate of 2,500 acres beautifully situated on the Potomac. 
Such a plantation gave him a position of influence in the 
colony. 

Washington started with several companions in October, 
1753. Part of the way his route lay through trackless for- 
ests. The rivers were swollen and the ground was covered 



152 CONQUEST OF THE FRENCH COLONIES 



by the early winter snows. The journey took six weeks. 
Washington found the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf, 
near the northern boundary of Pennsylvania. The response 
which he carried back to Governor Dinwiddie declared that 

the French king was 
™Jsf master of all the country 
west of the Alleghany 
Mountains. 

Fort Duquesne. — A 
conflict was now certain. 
A body of Virginians 
was hurried forward to 
the Forks of the Ohio 
to build a fort. The 
French, not to be out- 
witted, descended the 
Allegheny River in 
canoes, drove away the 
workmen, and con- 
structed a strong fort. 
They named it Fort 
Duquesne in honor of 
the governor of Canada. 
Meanwhile a large force 
of Virginians had been 
raised to occupy this position. The advance, commanded by 
Washington, met a party of Frenchmen in the woods on the 
western slope of the mountains. A fight followed, in which 
the French claimed that the Virginians fired the first shots. 
Jumonville, the leader of the French, and 20 of his men 
were killed, and the rest surrendered. Soon afterwards 
Washington was attacked near the same spot at Fort Neces- 
sity, which he had hastily constructed. It was his turn to 
surrender, but the French permitted him to march back to 




Washington's Road 

Near where he met the French under 
Jumonville. As it looks today 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 153 

Virginia on the understanding that no attempt should be 
made within a year to establish settlements west of the 
mountains. 

The Seven Years' War. — This was the beginning of the 
French and Indian War. In Europe, France and England 
were still at peace. Indeed, war was not declared for two 
years. It then became part of a struggle in which almost all 
European countries were engaged, and which was called the 
Seven Years' War. France and Russia combined with Maria 
Theresa of Austria to take from Frederick the Great of 
Prussia the territory which he had gained in the preceding 
war. 1 England aided Frederick. This great European war 
accounts for the length of the French and Indian War in 
America. Both England and France were also fighting in 
India. The consequence was that neither could spare more 
than a small part of their troops for the conflict in America. 

The English had a navy which was larger and stronger than 
the French navy, a very important advantage in a struggle 
beyond the sea. The English had 130 battle-ships, 2 while 
the French had only 63. Although the French had more 
soldiers than the English, they could not safely risk them on 
the ocean because they would probably be captured by the 
English fleet. It was therefore merely a question of time 
when the French in America would be overwhelmed. The 
only chance of the French was by crushing Frederick the 
Great, England's ally, on the Continent. But after a few 
successes they were badly beaten by the Prussian king. 

Indian Allies of France. — The Indians in the West took 
sides with the French. They looked upon the English beyond 

1 The War of the Austrian Succession, 1 740-1 748, in which Frederick had 
conquered Silesia; called King George's War in the colonies. 

A battle-ship, or ship-of-the-line, at that time was, like other ships, made 
of wood. It ordinarily had three decks, and was armed with from 74 to 120 
cannon. 



154 CONQUEST OF THE FRENCH COLONIES 



the mountains as intruders. As English settlements increased, 
the hunting grounds were spoiled. The French were few in 
number and interfered little with Indian lands. The fact 
that many of the Indians united with the French explains 
why the war was called "French and Indian." 

The Albany Congress. — The English were afraid that the 
Iroquois would join the western Indians against them, and 
arranged a conference at Albany in the summer of 1754. 
Commissioners from several colonies were present at this 
Albany conference or "Congress." They not only tried to 
strengthen the friendly attitude of the Iroquois, but also 
talked over plans of forming a union of the colonies. 

Franklin's Plan of Union. — Benjamin Franklin, a dele- 
gate from Pennsylvania, was one of the first to see the need 
of uniting the colonies. In the Pennsylvania Gazette, his news- 
paper, he printed a picture of a wriggling snake cut into 
pieces, with the initial letter of a colony on each piece. An 

old superstition said that if a snake 
was cut up and the pieces allowed 
to touch, they would knit together 
and the snake would live. Un- 
derneath the picture Franklin 
printed the words, "Join or die." 
He meant that the colonies must 
unite or they would perish. 
Franklin's plan was favored by 
the delegates at Albany, but was not adopted by the colo- 
nies. Few persons had any interest in union at that time. 
Moreover, some of the colonists were not alarmed, as the 
Virginians were, by the advance of the French into the Ohio 
country. The Quakers, who were very influential in Penn- 
sylvania, were opposed to war of any kind, and especially 
a war for territory. The colonies south of Virginia stood 
in dread of the Spaniards or of the Indians on their frontier. 




Device printed in Franklin's 
" Pennsylvania Gazette " 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT 



155 



Something greater than a quarrel about a frontier post 
at the Forks of the Ohio would be required to move the 
colonies toward union. 

Braddock's Defeat. — In 1755 the English government 
sent two regiments across the Atlantic to assist the Virginians 
in seizing Fort Duquesne. 
The expedition was com- 
manded by General Brad- 
dock, a soldier of courage 
and ability, but wholly igno- 
rant of fighting in the wilder- 
ness against Indians and 
woodsmen. Washington was 
in command of the Virginians. 

After a difficult march 
through the forest, during 
which ax-men were con- 
stantly busy cutting down 
trees in order to widen the 
trail, Braddock reached and 
crossed the Monongahela 
about eight miles above Fort 
Duquesne. While his army 




was moving through a wide RouTE 0F Braddo ^'s Expedition 
bushy ravine, a French force with many Indians suddenly 
attacked it on all sides. Washington and the Virginians 
wished to scatter in the forest and fight behind trees in 
Indian fashion, but Braddock thought such a method 
cowardly and tried to keep his men in line, after the manner 
of fighting in Europe. 

The result was disaster. After having four horses shot 
under him, Braddock fell mortally wounded. Washington 
lost two horses, and four times bullets tore through his clothes. 
Sixty-three out of eighty-six officers and two-thirds of the 



156 CONQUEST OF THE FRENCH COLONIES 



soldiers were killed or disabled. Washington led the wreck 
of the army back to the nearest refuge. Daniel Boone, a 
young woodsman from North Carolina, was among the 
fleeing wagon drivers. 

Washington's Defence of the Frontier. — The French and 
their Indian allies now raided the frontier settlements of 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The French com- 
mander boasted that all these settlements were destroyed, 
adding that "the Indian villages are full of prisoners of every 

age. The enemy has 
lost more since the bat- 
tle than on the day of 
his defeat." 

It was three years 

before another expe- 

^ dition was ready to 

start against Fort Du- 

quesne. Washington 
Pioneer Block-House in the Mononga- j- j 1 ■ 1 . f j p r„ nr | 
hela Country Q1Q ms Desc l ° aeiena 

the border, which was 

nearly 300 miles long. 
At the chief mountain passes he built block-houses, strength- 
ened by stockades. His hardy followers were armed with 
home-made flint-lock muskets, and carried tomahawks and 
scalping knives in their belts. They had no regular army 
uniform, but wore buck-skin hunting shirts, leggings, and 
moccasins. Washington's skill in defending the "back door" 
of the colonies gave him a greater reputation than that of any 
other colonial officer. 

The Acadians. — The English, in 1755, also made an unsuc- 
cessful attempt to dislodge the French from Lake Cham- 
plain, where their presence threatened the settlements in the 
Hudson River region. Far to the northeast, in Nova Scotia, 
the English feared that the Acadians, who had remained in 




The loopholes for defense may be seen under 
the eaves 



CAPTURE OF FRENCH POSTS 



157 



the country after the French gave it up in 17 13, would revolt 
and aid the French soldiers in reconquering it. Accordingly, 
they decided to "clear the whole country of such bad sub- 
jects." The English officers took lands and cattle, burned 
houses and barns, and scattered the Acadians among the 
English-speaking colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia. 
A quarter of a century later a French traveler passing 
through Baltimore noticed that 
a fourth of its inhabitants were 
Acadians. The removal of the 
Acadians is the subject of Long- 
fellow's poem Evangeline. 

William Pitt. — In 1757 the 
English found a new leader in 
William Pitt, who was made 
prime minister. Under his in- 
spiring influence no sacrifices 
seemed too great for the people 
of England or of the colonies. 
Colonial assemblies and parlia- 
ment, colonial officers and British officers, worked together. 
The colonies raised their share of troops; the mother country 
had to provide only tents, arms, and ammunition. Pitt's 
boldness swept away all obstacles. He once said, "I am 
sure I can save this country and that nobody else can;" 
and he convinced people that he spoke the truth. 

Capture of French Posts. — In 1758 Louisburg, on Cape 
Breton Island, was captured and the fortress destroyed. 
Fort Frontenac, which guarded the route from the upper St. 
Lawrence into Lake Ontario, was also taken and destroyed. 
Another expedition, in which Washington had a share, crossed 
Pennsylvania to attack Fort Duquesne. The soldiers found 
only blackened ruins; the French garrison had blown up 
the fort and fled. The English named the cluster of 




William Pitt 



158 CONQUEST OF THE FRENCH COLONIES 



traders' cabins Pittsburgh, in honor of the great leader in 
parliament. 

The reason why the French abandoned Fort Duquesne was 
the lack of troops to defend it. During the years from 1758 
to 1762 the English captured nine- tenths of all the French 
ships of war, and France could send little help to the brave 
officers and soldiers who were fighting 
her battles in America. In conse- 
quence they lost a fortress far more 
important than either Louisburg or 
Fort Duquesne. This was Quebec, 
their oldest settlement. 

Montcalm and Wolfe; Fall of 
Quebec, 1759. — The French com- 
mander at Quebec was the Marquis 
de Montcalm, the governor of New 
France. To increase his troops he 
pressed into service boys of fifteen 
and men of eighty. Indians were 
called from far and wide. For the 
attack Pitt sent General James Wolfe. 
Both Montcalm and Wolfe were men 
of unusual ability. Montcalm had 
one advantage, the position of Quebec, which made it almost 
unassailable. 

For nearly three months Wolfe watched before Quebec, 
trying to find a weak place in Montcalm's line of defense. 
Every attack that he made was easily repulsed. But Mont- 
calm had posted most of his army to guard the more dis- 
tant approaches, thinking the heights immediately above the 
city, rising in a wall from 250 to 350 feet, could be easily 
defended. He once said that a "hundred men posted there 
would stop the whole English army." Wolfe discovered a 
zigzag path up the side about a mile and a half from the city. 




British Soldier 



THE ENGLISH TAKE QUEBEC 159 

Volunteers attempted this path one dark night in September. 
They surprised the guards stationed at the top. By morn- 
ing 4,000 men were in possession of the heights, or Plains of 
Abraham, as they are commonly called. 

Montcalm immediately advanced to the attack. The Brit- 
ish did not fire until the French were within forty yards. 
The French first wavered, then fled, and Montcalm could 
not rally them. Both he and Wolfe were mortally wounded. 
Five days later Quebec surrendered. Only Montreal was 
now left in the hands of the French, and it surrendered the 
next year. 




Quebec in 1759 

Close of War. — This practically closed the war in 
America, but the Seven Years' War in Europe dragged on 
three years longer. Before it was over Spain took the side 
of France and also suffered defeat, the English capturing 
Havana in Cuba and Manila in the Philippine Islands. In 
1763 peace was made and France abandoned to England all 
her possessions east of the Mississippi River. Spain was 
obliged to give up Florida, a loss which the French tried to 
make good by giving to Spain New Orleans and all the French 
territory west of the Mississippi. 

New English Colonies. — The English now had three new 
colonial provinces, Canada and East and West Florida. They 



160 CONQUEST OF THE FRENCH COLONIES 

intended to provide governments much like those of the other 
colonies. At first it was impossible to call together assem- 
blies representing the inhabitants, and the provinces remained 
under control of military governors. 

An Indian Territory. — The vast region north of the Flor- 
idas and reaching from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi 
River was reserved to the Indians. The English government 
intended to open it for settlement gradually. Meanwhile 
all persons who had settled there were warned to leave. In 
this action the government showed little respect for the 
claims of the different colonies under their charters. Colo- 
nists whose eyes had long been turned- to the fertile valleys 
beyond the mountains would not be likely to obey the royal 
proclamation, especially after the dangers of Indian attack 
were lessened. 

Pontiac's War. — The western Indians were not willing to 
submit to English rule. When the English commander-in- 
chief showed no readiness to win their favor by presents, or 
even to allow trade with them to continue, they united under 
the leadership of Pontiac, a chief of the Pottawattamies, and 
attacked all the posts from Detroit to Niagara. With the 
exception of these two, all were taken and their garrisons 
massacred. The Indians of the Ohio Valley attacked the 
posts in western Pennsylvania and advanced into the central 
part of the colony. They finally realized that they could 
not drive the English away and gave up the struggle. The 
royal proclamation forbidding settlers to enter the region 
west of the Alleghanies was intended to quiet their fears and 
pave the way to friendly relations with them. 

Pitt and the Rights of the Colonists. — At the close of the 
war the colonists rejoiced over the victory as much as the 
English at home. They were proud to belong to an empire 
so strong and great. But already something had happened 
which showed that their enthusiasm might be short-lived. 



THE RIGHTS OF THE COLONISTS 



161 



Even while the war was raging, the northern colonies were 
reluctant to break off their trade with the French West Indies. 
Pitt was angry at the conduct of these colonial traders. He 
was told that the best way to stop such trade with the enemy 




was to enforce the Sugar Act. This he resolved to do, and 
the news caused a panic among the Boston merchants. 

It was difficult to find smuggled goods unless the officers 
could break into storehouses and other places where they 
thought these goods were hidden. An old English maxim 
declared every man's house his castle, into which no officer 
could enter without a special warrant. For the purpose of 
searching for smuggled goods general warrants, called " writs 



1 62 CONQUEST OF THE FRENCH COLONIES 

of assistance," were used in England, and they had also been 
used in the colonies. In order to stop their issue the mer- 
chants resolved to appeal to the old legal maxim. Although 
they lost their case, James Otis, a young lawyer, awakened 
the spirit of resistance by declaring boldly that the colonists 
had all the rights of Englishmen. 

At the same time the Virginians were aroused by a new 
royal veto. Patrick Henry, another young lawyer, declared 
in court that this veto was an act of misrule so serious that 
the people would be justified in resistance. 1 

Success in the war with the French might quiet such dis- 
putes for a time, but they were certain to begin again unless 
the English government made its laws more fair to the colo- 
nists. Furthermore, disputes would endanger the hold of the 
government on the colonies, now that the expulsion of the 
French from Canada and the Mississippi country had partly 
freed the colonists from the need of British protection. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What class of English colonists had begun crossing the Appalachian 
barrier before 1750? What settlements had previously been made in the 
Illinois country? What colonies claimed western lands? Where did they 
obtain such claims? 

2. What steps did the French take in 1749 toward occupying the Ohio coun- 
try? What did the Virginians do? What was the best route from Virginia 
to the Ohio country? 

3. What forts did the French build in order to hold the Ohio country? 
Why did Washington make a journey to one of these forts? What answer did 
the French commander give him? 

4. What trouble caused the French and Indian War in America? Of what 
greater war did this French and Indian War become a part? What were the 
nations fighting about in Europe? How did the war in Europe affect the war 
in America? What advantage had England in the war in America? 

5. Which side did the western Indians take? Why? Why was the Albany 
Congress held? What plan did Franklin present to the Congress? Why did 
not the colonies form a union? 

1 This was the famous "Parson's Cause," which arose from an attempt of 
the Virginians to pay the clergy in money during a scarcity of tobacco. See 
page 46. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 163 

6. Whom did England send to capture Fort Duquesne? Why was his 
expedition defeated? What happened during the next three years on the 
western frontier? What did Washington do during this time? 

7. Who were the Acadians? What was done with them? What poem 
describes their fate? 

8. Who became the English leader in 1757? What was the result of the 
change in leaders? What part did the colonies take in the French and Indian 
War? 

9. How did the English finally manage to capture Fort Duquesne? What 
change was made in its name? Why did the English succeed so well in Amer- 
ica after 1758? 

10. Why was Quebec so hard to capture? Who commanded the French 
defense? Who led the English attack? How did Wolfe capture Quebec? 

n. What colonies did England gain as a result of the Seven Years' War? 
What European country came into possession of Louisiana? Why did France 
give up Louisiana? 

12. How did England decide to use the western territory gained during the 
war with France? What colonies also claimed these lands (see p. 148)? Why 
was it difficult for England to enforce the orders against settling in the West? 
Why did England wish to keep white settlers from the West? 

13. What happened during the French and Indian War to offend the colo- 
nists and arouse them against the mother country? Why was the danger from 
this trouble all the greater now that France no longer held Canada? 

EXERCISES 

1. Locate on an outline map the Louisiana, the Illinois, and the Canadian 
settlements and the new forts on the Ohio frontier. Which claim to the Ohio 
country do you think was the better, the French or the English? Give reasons 
for your opinion. 

2. Write a paper describing Washington's part in the French and Indian 
War. 

Important Dates : 

1749. The French and English take the first steps toward seizing the 

Ohio country. 
1755. Braddock's expedition. 
1759. The fall of Quebec. 
1763. End of the French and Indian War, and the struggle of France and 

England for colonies in the New World. 



CHAPTER XV 

WHY THE ENGLISH COLONISTS BECAME REVOLUTIONISTS 

After the War. — Occasions of dispute between the colo- 
nies and the mother country were not likely to disappear 
with the end of the French and Indian War. On the 
contrary, they were bound to increase. Money was 
sorely needed. The public debt of Great Britain had been 
doubled in seven years. If the laws regulating colonial 
trade could be made to bring more revenue into the British 
treasury, they would certainly be enforced. New taxes were 
probable. 

It was likely that the government would grasp the reins 
of colonial management more firmly. Three new colonies 
with a foreign population, besides a vast Indian territory, 
would require the presence of soldiers. The British fleet, 
which had covered itself with glory during the war, must do 
guard duty on many seas, for the British now, if never before, 
ruled an empire. Conquests in India, as well as in America, 
gave the rulers of England a feeling of power and a sense 
of responsibility. Here was the danger. If, in making new 
plans for their many territories, they treated the colonists as 
subjects, rather than Englishmen with rights equal to their 
own, the triumph over France might be turned into a great 
disaster. 

Grenville's Plan. — In 1763 George Grenville, a new prime 
minister, decided that 10,000 British troops must be kept in 
America and that the colonies should be required to pay at 



COLONIAL QUESTIONS 



165 



least a third of the expense. He planned to raise the money 
chiefly by a stamp tax. He planned also to enforce thoroughly 
the laws regulating trade, and to change the Sugar Act so 
that it would bring in revenue. Like many other English- 
men at the time, he forgot that the colonists had paid more 
than their share in the recent war and that they still had a 
part of their war debts to pay. 

Grenville also did not take into account the fact that the 
taxes charged in English ports on goods sent to America were 
really paid by the colonial purchasers. 1 He and the other 
members of parliament repre- 
sented chiefly English landholders 
and merchants. It was hardly 
fair that they should regulate 
colonial trade in such a way as 
to increase their profits, and at 
the same time try to shift the 
burden of taxation from their 
shoulders to those of the colonists. 
But they could not be expected 
to see this, believing, as they did, 
that the main use of colonies was 
to increase the riches of the 
mother country. 

The king of England was George III, then at the beginning 
of his reign of sixty years. He was shrewd but narrow- 
minded, and disliked the colonists because they were inclined 
to manage their own affairs. He heartily approved Grenville's 
plan. As many members of parliament were chosen through 
his influence, they voted as he wished. All through the 
troubles with America the "king's friends" were on the 
wrong side of nearly every question. 

1 In the eighteenth century all countries collected export as well as import 
duties. 




Kixg George III 




166 WHY THE COLONISTS BEGAN THE REVOLUTION 

Stamp Act. — The new Sugar Act of 1764 did not excite 

the colonists as much as the news that parliament was to 

introduce a stamp tax. The colonists denied the right of 

parliament to tax them directly. 1 This right, they said, 

jKgtsfl- belonged to their own legislatures, where 

their representatives sat. 

It was of little use for the English 

officers to reply that the colonists were as 

much represented in parliament as the 

people of Manchester or Birmingham or 

other cities in England. Such arguments 

. did not convince the colonists. They 

believed that a legislature which voted 
A Stamp of 1765 ° 

taxes must be chosen by the persons who 

paid the taxes. They declared that there should be, "No 
taxation without representation." In England multitudes of 
tax-payers could not vote. If a town centuries before had 
not been big enough to send members to parliament, it could 
not now send members, however big it was. At the same 
time towns which once had received the right to send mem- 
bers and had grown small did not lose the right. If now 
the same lord owned all the property in a town or in three 
or four of them, he chose the members. Scores of members 
were in reality named by great lords or by the king. The 
colonists would not have endured a legislature like that. Their 
objection, however, was that parliament did not represent 
them in the sense in which they understood representation. 

The Stamp Act was passed in 1765. It was modeled upon 
a statute then successfully enforced in England. Stamps 
varying in value from one cent to $50 must be placed upon 

1 In 1765 the colonists did not object so much to indirect taxes like those 
in the Sugar Act as to direct taxes like those in the Stamp Act. But after 
the repeal of the Stamp Act they became convinced that any tax levied by 
parliament, instead of by their own legislatures, was injurious to them. 




RESISTANCE TO THE STAMP ACT 167 

every almanac, newspaper, pamphlet, marriage license, and 
college diploma, as well as upon a multitude of legal docu- 
ments. Officials were to be appointed to sell the stamps. 

Resistance to the Stamp Act. — Patrick Henry of Virginia 
and James Otis of Massachusetts were again the boldest 
advocates of colonial rights. 
Henry's resolutions against 
parliamentary taxation, passed 
in the Virginia assembly, were 
copied in colony after colony. 
Town-meetings and county as- 
semblies, ministers in their ser- 
mons, and newspapers in their 
editorials, joined in the effort 
to awaken the whole people. 

A storm of declarations of lllfflliPliP^ 

rights, remonstrances, and peti- Patrick Henry 

tions Swept the COUntry. The After Sully's portrait in the State Library, 
, . . . „ . Richmond 

legislatures of Connecticut, 

Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, 
and Virginia protested against the Stamp Act. James Otis 
suggested a general Congress of delegates from the colonies. 
In October, 1765, representatives from nine met in the city 
hall at New York. Other colonies sent letters of sympathy. 
The Congress at New York, usually called the Stamp Act 
Congress, decided to publish a statement of the colonial side 
of the controversy and to petition the king and parliament. 
Franklin's device, the wriggling snake with the motto, "Join 
or die," reappeared at the head of the newspapers. Such 
events showed that a spirit of union was growing rapidly. 
Long before the Congress met at New York, the people had 
decided the fate of the Stamp Act. 

The merchants of the chief towns canceled their orders 
and refused to buy any more goods of British make until 



168 WHY THE COLONISTS BEGAN THE REVOLUTION 

parliament should repeal the Stamp Act. Women bound 
themselves to wear nothing but homespun, and conducted 
spinning matches where they offered prizes for the fastest 
and best work. Many zealous patriots in Boston and Phila- 
delphia circulated pledges to eat no lamb in order to increase 
the amount of wool. Secret societies, which called themselves 
Sons of Liberty, laid plans to destroy the stamps and drive 
the distributors from office. Posters or handbills on the doors 
or street-corners threatened all who tried to sell stamps or 
to use them. The Sons of Liberty of New York scattered 
broadcast a handbill which said, "The first man that either 
distributes or makes use of Stampt Paper let him take Care 
of His House, Person, and Effects." The Stamp Act was to 
go into effect on the first day of November, 1765. WTien 
the day arrived the stamp distributors had quietly resigned 
and no stamps could be found. 

Repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766. — The refusal to buy or 
use British-made goods or to trade with British merchants 
— a sort of boycott ■ — • accomplished all that the colonists 
hoped for. The merchants, manufacturers, and even the 
artisans, in Great Britain soon began to suffer from the loss 
of colonial business. Parliament hesitated to drive the col- 
onies into open rebellion and ruin its own merchants besides. 
In March, 1766, the famous Stamp Act was repealed. 

The news of the repeal was received with rejoicing in Eng- 
land and America alike. Bells were rung and banquets were 
held in London as well as in the chief colonial towns. As 
Pitt had urged repeal, the colonists, forgetting his enforce- 
ment of the Sugar Act, displayed his portrait in shop windows. 
New York and South Carolina voted him a statue. Even the 
king, though opposed to repeal, enjoyed a brief popularity. 
The Philadelphia Quakers decided to celebrate his birthday 
by dressing in new suits of English make, giving their home- 
spun clothing to the poor. 



STAMP ACT REPEALED 



169 



New difficulties soon arose over the Quartering Act, which 
required the colonies to furnish the royal troops stationed in 
the different places with lodgings, fuel, and food. The colonial 
leaders considered this a mere substitute for taxation. New 
York, Boston, and Charleston refused to comply. The dis- 
pute with New York lasted three years. Its governor refused 
to allow the legislature to sit until the colony finally yielded 
and furnished the soldiers with quarters. 

The Townshend Acts. — In 1767, barely a year after the 
repeal of the Stamp Act, parliament under the leadership of 
Charles Townshend passed other acts to raise money from 
America. The acts put taxes on glass, lead, paper, and tea 
shipped to the colonies. Besides these duties, the colonists 
were still paying, as required by the Sugar Act, taxes on 
sugar, molasses, coffee, wine, and indigo. Altogether the 
list was a long one, and the colo- 
nial leaders were convinced that 
parliament intended to establish a 
permanent system of taxation. 
They liked the law still less when 
they were told that the income 
from the new taxes would be used 
partly to pay the salaries of colo- 
nial governors and judges, who 
would thus be more independent 
of the colonial legislatures. 

Resistance to the Townshend 
Duties. — Samuel Adams, a citizen 
of Boston, like Otis, now revived the pledges against buying 
or using British-made goods. "We will form," he ex- 
claimed, "an immediate and universal combination to eat 
nothing, drink nothing, wear nothing, imported from Great 
Britain." Washington wrote to his agent in London telling 
him not to send any articles taxed by parliament, for, said he,. 




Samuel Adams 
After Copley's portrait in the 
Boston Museum of Fine Arts 



170 WHY THE COLONISTS BEGAN THE REVOLUTION 



h A LIST of the Names of thoJt% 

b .hoAUDACiousLYcontinueiocounteraatheUNiT- b 

b ED Sentimints of the BODY of Merchants tbro'out b 

b NORTH- AMERICA : by importing Brilifh Goodi b 

b contrary to the Agreement, h 

u John Bernard, t, 

b (In King Street, almoft opr«>fiie Vernon'jHead. j, 

5 James McMaJiers, \ 

h J J > (On Treaf. Wharf, g 

h "Patrick McMaJlers, b 

h (Oppofne the Sign of the lamb, b 

% John Mem, \ 

y, (Opponte the White-Horfe, and in KJog-Street. ^ 

h Nathaniel Rogers, h 

•» (OppofiteMr. Henderfon Incha Store lower End b 

h K.ng-Slreet. J 

% William Jack/on, £ 

• thrBrairnH<ad,Cornhill,ne«rAeTovni.Hoiife. |, 



tbeophilus Lillie, 

(Neat Mr.P«mberton»Meeting-Honfe,NoTth-End. g 

John Taylor, .•,„*> 

(Nearly oppofne the Heart andCrown inComhrll. J, 

Ame & Elizabeth Cummings, 6 

ppof.te the Old Brick Meeting Hoofe, alt of Bofton. £ 



b (°rf 

b J/ro<-/ Williams, Efq; O* Son, 

r? (Traderi In the Town of Hatfield. 

b And, Henry Barnes, 

K (Trader in the Town of M tor 
| . 

A Boycotting Poster 
Reduced facsimile 



"I have very heartily entered into an association not to import 
any article which now is, or hereafter shall be, taxed for this 
purpose until the said act or acts are repealed." 

The senior class at Harvard College agreed, in 1768, to 
graduate "dressed altogether in the manufactures of the 

country." The students of 
Rhode Island College, now 
Brown University, followed 
their example the next year. 
Some colonists resorted to 
violence in resisting the hated 
taxes. In New England towns, 
especially, mobs of town 
toughs on more than one occa- 
sion roughly handled mer- 
chants who ventured to import 
British goods. Conflicts be- 
tween customs officers and 
mobs were frequent. Such 
acts of lawlessness went un- 
punished, for no jury could 
be found which would convict the guilty. 

Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770. — In 1768 two British 
regiments were sent to Boston, where attacks upon customs 
officers had been most serious. Benjamin Franklin had 
warned the king's advisers that if soldiers were sent to Amer- 
ica to enforce taxation they would not find a rebellion but 
might make one. Their presence angered the citizens. The 
rougher men and boys lost no opportunity of insulting the 
soldiers. The wonder is that no serious clash took place for 
nearly two years. But on the evening of March 5, 1770, a 
mob began pelting a sentry in front of the custom house, and 
when several guards came to his rescue knocked one of them 
down. The soldiers thereupon fired into the crowd, killing 



TAX ON TEA 



171 



five and wounding six. The colonists called the affray the 
"Bloody Massacre" or the "Boston Massacre." 

Tax on Tea. — The pledges not to use British goods were 
so effective that within a year the colonial trade decreased 
nearly $4,000,000. 
Parliament yielded 
again and repealed 
all duties provided 
for in the Town- 
shend acts except 
a tax of six cents 
a pound on tea. 
It was thought 
that the colonists 
would not object 
to one small tax, 
and that they 
would become ac- 
customed to pay- 
ing taxes levied by 
parliament. This was another blunder, for the colonists 
objected to taxed tea as strongly as before. The women 
of Edenton, the colonial capital of North Carolina, banded 
together to use no more of the "pernicious herb." Sassa- 
fras or raspberry tea, they declared, was better than the 
bitterness in taxed tea. 

Committees of Correspondence. — Many of the colonists 
were becoming weary of such constant strife. If the Brit- 
ish government had not made new blunders every year or 
two, perhaps the spirit of resistance would have died out. 
Meanwhile Samuel Adams and other Boston patriots organ- 
ized Committees of Correspondence in the Massachusetts 
towns in order to keep the acts of the government constantly 
before the people. At this time some Rhode Islanders burned 




The Boston Massacre 
From an engraving by Paul Revere 



172 WHY THE COLONISTS BEGAN THE REVOLUTION 



the British revenue vessel Gas pee, and the government tried 
to find them in order that they might be taken to England 
for trial. Such a threat aroused the Virginia assembly, and 
it proposed the formation of Committees of Correspondence 

between the colo- 
nies. In this way 
the machinery for 
organized resist- 
ance was being 



TO THE 



DELAWARE 

PILOTS. 
T 



H E Regard we hive for your Characters, and our Defile to promote your Created. 
tutuxe Peace and Safety, are the Occasion of this Third Addrefi <o you 



Boston Tea 
Party." — In 1773 



T* our fecond Letter we acquainted you, that the Tea Ship was a Three 
Decker ; We are oow informed bv good Authority, the is not a Three Decker, but 
an old Unci Ship, xuuAcui <* HauL, or any Orna/nentt 

Thx Captain iz a Jhm l fat Fellow, and a Utile obftuuut wi\hal — So much the worfe «• , 

fa him-- -For, Co lute as he tide* rujlj, We fhaJJ heave him Keel out, and fee that Parliament 1113.06 3, 
"his Bottom be well fired, fcrubbd and paid,.- His l/pper- Works too, will have an 
Overhauling - and as it is laid, he has a good deal of Quick Work about him, We 
Will lake particular Care that fuch Part of bun undergoes a thorough Rummaging 

Ve have a (Ull tterje Account of Ai» &uncr ,— lor it is fcid, the Ship Polly was 
bought by hnn on Purpofi?, to make a Penny of trs , and that Ae and Captain Ayret 
were well advued of the Rifque they would run, m thus danng to mfult andabule 



plan about the tea 
trade which aimed 
to accomplish three 
things — tempt the 
colonists to buy 

Wi Xnow him 'well, and have calculated to a Gill and a Feather, how much it . 

«nJl ,eau,,e to Et him for an Amnu-an &U« And we hope, not one of your tea On WhlCU 3. tSiX 
Body will behave io ill, as to oblige ui to clap him m the Cart along Side of the 
CapUin, 

We wuft repeat, thai the S H I P P O L t Y « an eld Hack %>, of about Two 
Hundred and Fifty Tons burthen -uuhaut a. Head, and wuhcuc OrnamenUt— and, that 

CAPTAIN AYRES it a. Oiuk chunk; FeUou. - M (uch, Tajct Caul to 

avoid THEM. 

You*, Oid Fiitscs, 



Captain Ayres was here m tho Time of ihe Stamp-Act, and ought to have known 
our People better, than to have expected we would be fo mean as to fuff CT hia rotten* 
TEA to befunnel'ddown ourThroais, with the Tailianwrfi Duly mixed with il 



The. COMMlTTf E roa TARRING amp FEATHERING, 

How Philadelphia Citizens prevented 

the Landing of Tea 

Reduced facsimile 



was paid, put an 
end to colonial 
smuggling in tea, 1 
and help the East 
India Company 
sell its tea. The 
company then had 
17,000,000 pounds of tea in its warehouses. The plan was 
to permit the company to send a certain amount of tea to 
America without first selling it to the English merchants. 
Thus the price would be very low in the colonies because 
the merchant's profits would not be included. This would 

1 At this time most of the tea used in the colonies was smuggled in. Colo- 
nial vessels regularly bought tea in the East Indies or in Holland and found 
ways of slipping it into the ports without paying the British tax. 



PUNISHMENT OF BOSTON 173 

make the colonists forget about the tax. At the same time 
the smuggler would lose the business. 

Several ships loaded with tea were sent to Boston, New 
York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. The news aroused 
great indignation in the colonies. In Philadelphia and 
New York committees of citizens 
persuaded the captains of the 
ships to return to London with- 

i.1-1-1. ANNO DECIMO QUAJITO 

out entering the harbors. 

At Charleston the royal officers QgOrini ] ReP'is 

stored the tea in the cellars of ° 

the custom house. There it re- 
mained. No agent of the East cab. xix. 
India Company dared to pay the An /fw Continue, in fcch Mann ^ ^ for 

A J ^ * ■* iucn. Time as are therein mentioned, the 

duty and offer it for sale. Three kndmg and d>fcharging, lading or dipping, 

of Goods, Wares, and Merchandife, at the 
years later, When War had begun, Town, and within the Harbour, of Boflan, in 
„ ,. _ .. 1 1 ,i tie Province tfi Mitfechufei't £<a, mMrtJb 

South Carolina sold the tea to America. 

pay War expenses. gW^fSfi*' 1 **®*® tanjerou* cromtnorton* 

"-•<£i£f}> anB "JntutreiriOM bant teen foiuentfo 



In Boston the royal officials frrf^sil m mwta ** emn 0I 8oft,m ' •» 

<8<So*ffiPa?Ssl "" IpioMinre of MsBochuietfs Bay, in 

were determined to land the tea. fe^S^llTlir?^'^^^ 
ri. gredL puunc meeting wdb neiu |p«i«, mb goob ©*« or tje &11 a-own; m urnuj 

.1 /"vl^j c 4-1, "l\T <-* "LJ CTormnooonarflnOSnruitcaioivScatatntWnabltiSargow 

in LUC U1Q oOUtil IVieeting XlOUSe. <tfe^, briny tyej^operty of tyeEaaindiaCompany. 
_.. . , c m 1 • art) oa »at4 cecujn tltfttia Ijins Mntbin tfte 38aj! oj 

1 he leaders failed to convince <» oo> ®atbo« 

the governor that the ships must First Page of the Boston 

Port Bill 

be sent away. Night having come Reduced facsimile 

on, the crowd rushed to the 

wharves. Forty or fifty men, disguised as Indians, boarded 

the ships. By nine o'clock every chest of tea had been 

broken open and the contents thrown into the sea. 

Punishment of Boston. — ■ The royal government now 
attempted to punish Boston as an object lesson to all the 
colonies. The port was closed and the custom house removed 
to Salem until the citizens should pay the East India Com- 
pany about $75,000, the value of the tea which had been 



174 WHY THE COLONISTS BEGAN THE REVOLUTION 

destroyed. A little later the government of the colony was 
so changed that the colonists could not hold a town meet- 
ing without the governor's consent. Their juries also were 
selected by sheriffs appointed by the governor. These laws 
were called the "Intolerable Acts." * They excited the Mas- 
sachusetts people so much that General Gage, the new gov- 
ernor, who had arrived with four more regiments, was obliged 
to fortify the narrow neck of land which connected Boston 
with the surrounding country. 

The distress of Boston, with its trade ruined, stirred the 
sympathy of the other colonies. Salem offered the free use 
of its wharves and warehouses to the Boston merchants. The 
towns of Massachusetts and other colonies sent supplies. 
Israel Putnam, a veteran of the French and Indian War, 
drove to Boston a flock of sheep from his Connecticut town. 
Washington headed a subscription in Fairfax County, Vir- 
ginia, with a gift of $250, promising also to raise a thousand 
men, maintain them at his own expense, and march to the 
relief of Boston. 

The Continental Congress, 1774. — Parliament and King 
George had counted on dealing with Massachusetts alone. 
Never was a graver mistake made. The other colonies 
declared that Boston was "suffering in the common cause." 
The members of the Virginia assembly, Washington, Patrick 
Henry, and Thomas Jefferson among them, suggested that 
a general Congress, like the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, 
should be held. The Virginians sent their plan to the other 
colonies and invited Massachusetts to name the date and 
place. On September 5, 1774, the Congress met in the 

1 In 1774 the colonists were also excited by the passage of the Quebec Act, 
for the government of that province; first, because the province was extended 
southward to the Ohio River, notwithstanding the land claims of the colonies 
on the coast, and second, because no provision was made for a provincial assem- 
bly representing the inhabitants. 



FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 



i7S 



Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. It was called the Conti- 
nental Congress, and included delegates from twelve colonies. 

The Continental Congress, like the Stamp Act Congress, 
drew up a declaration of the rights of the colonies and a 
statement of their griev- 
ances. Their list of griev- 
ances had grown much 
longer. The "Intolerable 
Acts" were called "un- 
politic, unjust, and cruel." 
Two decisions of the Con- 
gress were particularly im- 
portant. By the first the 
members agreed to sus- 
pend all trade with Great 
Britain. No one was either 
to import or consume tea 
or any other British goods. 
After one year no Ameri- 
can should sell or export 
his goods to England. 
Committees should be ap- 
pointed in every county or town to see that the agreement 
was faithfully kept. By the second decision Congress, when 
it adjourned, proposed that a second Continental Congress 
should meet in May, 1775. 

Two Parties in America. — Many colonists thought that 
resistance to the English government had gone too far. They 
believed that parliament in repealing the Stamp Act and most 
of the taxes in the Townshend acts had treated the colonies 
fairly. They also thought that the frequent attacks on the 
English officials, who tried to enforce the laws, justified meas- 
ures like the Intolerable Acts. The merchants had grown 
tired of the steady loss of trade. Among the friends of Great 




Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, 1774 
Where the first Continental Congess met 



\\:1V [HE COLONISTS BEGAN [HE REVOLUTION 

es couist, 

aJtsts or 
emsdvcs 

to them. 
. - 

ebefe 
qI America in F . - . 

s :he 
Sex en) 
oembers tike \\ 

es James 1 
Easwts - >ts - :he 

Bits s» afcs Bcausf 

:he liber: es Enghsh- 
g land quite as much as in I 

in their y bests 
ars s its es ute 

But t>. . endeis 
■ .. . • m . . oanben 
x ■ 3 Bis 

C'-"£ >:'.;>" > 

the colonies and mother country aaore Bkety to have croohle 
-. and LkL I *as the chief danger when England 

-Life's pL»r ' ns this unfair to the cotoc s 

_ - - - 

low did tike cciocisjc- :ie enforcement of the Stamr 

- — 
d imliiwnt repeal the Stamp Act? What grounds of depute 

- . - ■ • - ' 

. v : i 

:-. .^ :• : :c _-• - : -;- _ ~c :: :.-: : - :* :_— c :5 Wiy 



id exzrc: 

7. What mettods did the co loni s ts nse to resist Tow n rfif a d' s dnties? Why 
did parliament scad soldiers to Boston? What warning did Fcaakfin ejre the 

£..--/ . i-. 

•...•.-.--.- ■-..■■ : '.' ' ' ' . . . t - . 

V.. - ... .-- V.I-.-. :•.: :•-- -'- * V- T. -=.. ' "•'.".-_;.•. ~c.-_ ■: '_ '. ': =. ~ . r. .-.^.~: 
.'. =;'.-. ..-. ' -. -:- '.. " .'" -." - ,....- :V: j."..'. - ." t LV.: \\ : i"„l ~ r" V 

addition did Mizir.ia propose to Ins method? Why did Mrgiaia maV - 
proposal? 

9. What change did parliament make in 1773 **th regard to tea? Hcnr 
did the colonists prevent the payment of tie us. 

10. How did parliament try to punish Boston for the destruction of the 

... . 

11. What two decisions did the Continental Congress at Phgadriphia form? 

12. Did all American colonists agree with those leaders who masted the 

>-.-.. .- -.^- '„::.'■.:_•_'• '■■:^\ -J--':.-:- .:-. r ri :; :.v. ri "■--. ; . iri — .'.1 ,-rr:.-. 
an? To those who s up por t ed the colonial resistance? What had parfia- 

".-.:.: ".■.:.-. -■-■■.-_-_- ■.-. ^ . .;. ■■-___-;•. ~'.<..t r: :.v. _i 1.1 :. : :. :i- ;^.r . '.:-'- ">._: ^:.; 
0: -'-^ :.■--..;- rl-. ::.z ... i_;:; --.--:■ 

zzz?::sze 

1. ilake a list of the acts of paHJannti i mentioned in this chanter and in 
ions chapters, especially Chapter XIII, which were the occasion ot 

could have voted in the colonies for the members of the legislatures? 

3. Find out. by asking some one who knows, bow taxes are raised in the 
Philippine Islands under the United States government. Do the people 
of the Philippine Islands have any grievances like those of the American 
colonies? 

--- - Parliament under Grenvifle's leadership passes the Stamp Act. 

: ' - '.' ... . - . _-_ 

[774. If 1 1 1 if, of the C ntinental Congress in Philadelphia. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE OUTBREAK OF WAR 

Preparations for War. — One of the consequences of the 
Intolerable Acts in 1774 was that the Massachusetts House 
of Representatives reorganized itself as a Provincial Con- 
gress. A committee of safety which it appointed began to 
prepare for armed resistance. All over New England com- 
panies of militia were formed and were drilled regularly. 
Every fourth man was pledged to take the field at a 
minute's notice and was called the " minute-man." Mili- 
tary stores were collected. Other colonies also appointed 
committees of safety and prepared for a struggle. 

Early in September it looked as if war would begin at 
once. General Gage sent troops to seize 300 barrels of pow- 
der stored a few miles from Boston. The report spread that 
the soldiers had killed six colonists. Before it was disproved 
40,000 men had seized their guns and started for Boston. A 
similar expedition in April, 1775, ^d to fighting. 

Lexington and Concord. — General Gage wished to destroy 
the military stores which the colonists had collected at Con- 
cord, eighteen miles northwest of Boston. Every effort was 
made to keep the expedition a secret. It left Boston late 
at night on April 18, and marched by unfrequented paths 
until well on the way to Lexington and Concord. The Bos- 
ton "patriots," among them Dr. Joseph Warren, heard of 
the plan early in the evening, and sent messengers to warn 
the colonists. Paul Revere was one of the messengers. 



LEXINGTON AND CONCORD 



179 



Before leaving he asked a friend to hang two lanterns in 
the tower of the North Church as a signal to patriots in 
Charlestown that the British had started. 

Revere and other messengers were soon riding madly 
through the country-side calling the villagers to arms. The 
ringing of bells, the beating of drums, and the firing of guns 
told the British soldiers that the secret was out. They 
reached Lexington, twelve miles on their way to Concord, 




The Battle at Lexington, April 19, 1775 
After an engraving made by two Continental militia-men who were in the battle 

just as day was breaking. On the village green stood fifty 
or sixty minute-men. Resistance was out of the question and 
their leader ordered them to withdraw. But in the confusion 
a shot was fired, and soon the firing became general. The 
colonial militia retreated after eight of their number were 
killed and ten wounded. Only one or two of the British 
were wounded. 

At Concord the British found few stores, because most of 
these had been hidden securely or removed to neighboring 
towns. They destroyed thirty or forty barrels of flour, spiked 
two or three cannon, and threw some cannon balls into a mill- 



180 THE OUTBREAK OF WAR 

pond. Meanwhile the minute-men were assembling rapidly 
on the hills about the town. A large body soon attacked and 
drove off the British soldiers who had been stationed at the 
North Bridge. 

A Disastrous Retreat. — Fighting began in earnest about 
noon when the British started on their return march to Bos- 

*»e Salem <ffa f ette ton ' From behind ""»* hill > 

Salem, Maf/achufeUs, April 25, I77 S n0USe > 01 " St0Iie Wal1 the minilte- 

The Britifh pillaged aimoft every houfe they men and farmers shot at the 

paffed by, breaking and deftroying doors, 

windows, glaffes, etc., and carrying off cloth- Column of Soldiers. The march 

ing and other valuable effects. It appeared 

to be their defign to burn and deftroy all was soon changed into a dis- 

before them; and nothing but our vigorous <-> 

purfuit prevented their infernal purpofe nrHprlv fllVhf R pinfnTVPmPn td 

from being put in execution. But the fav- orueny mgm.. js.einiorcemenis 

age barbarity exercifed upon the bodies of r__._- Ti^^t-^-r-. ~,of 4-V. a. D-Ji.M, 

our unfortunate brethren who fell, is aimoft irOm JDOSlOn md liie ijritlSn 

incredible; not contented with f hooting . T • -p, . . ,, 

down the unarmed, aged, and infirm, they at Lexington. But SO rapidly 

difregarded the cries of the wounded, killing -•- - m* • i 1 

them without mercy, and mangling their did the militia gather On the 
bodies in the moft fhocking manner. 

Part of the Account of the route that the whole bod y of 
Battles of Lexington and Con- British soldiers barely escaped 
cord in a Colonial Newspaper ^ . . . 

capture. Pamc-stncken and 

exhausted, they found refuge at nightfall under the guns of 
the British ships near Charlestown. 

Meaning of Lexington and Concord. — The losses on both 
sides in this struggle were heavy, although the British losses 
were three times those of the colonists. The chances of a 
peaceful settlement of the controversy between parliament 
and the colonies were now slight. Blood had been shed and 
the fighting spirit was increased by the tales spread in Eng- 
land and the colonies. The colonists were told that the 
British had begun the battle and, besides, had destroyed 
property and maltreated families along their route. The 
English heard that the wrongs were all on the other side. It 
was clear, at all events, that the colonial militia would fight 
to defend their rights. "I never believed," said a British 
officer sadly, "that they would have attacked the king's 
troops." Lexington and Concord were not riots like the 



SIEGE OF BOSTON 181 

''Boston Massacre," but the opening battles of a great 
revolution. 

Siege of Boston. — The minute-men who had driven the 
British into Boston did not return home, but remained en- 
camped in a great circle about the city. They meant that 
General Gage should send no more expeditions to seize their 
stores. They soon determined 

to drive him OUt of Boston. On the return of the troops from 

Other companies of militia SStiSSESSSSSSA 

Came in from towns tOO far by the rebels firing from behind walls, 

, , . , ditches, trees, and other ambufhes; but 

away tO have a Share m the the brigade, under the command of 

first day's fighting. John ^ord Percy, having joined them at 

J Lexington with two pieces or cannon, 

Stark, a veteran of the French the rebels were for a while difperfed; 

ware lprl thp Npw TTamnshirp but as foon as the troops refumed their 

wars, led tne iNew mmpsmre march ^ ey began to fire upon them 
militia. Israel Putnam rode irom behind ftone walls and houfes, 

,. „ . ill anc ' kept up in that manner a fcatter- 

from Connecticut, One hundred i ng fire during the whole of their march 

miles, in eighteen hours, reach- of fift , ee . n ™ le ^ b y "*"**» means feveral 

° # were killed and wounded; and luch was 

ing the Camp On the morning the cruelty and barbarity of the rebels, 

r a M tt~ \,„A 1„(4- that they fcalped and cut off the ears 

Of April 21. He had left of some of the wounded men who fell 

Orders for his men tO follow into their hands. 

immediatelv. Part of a British Account of 

•'' . Concord and Lexington 

Armies are not created in „ iU r , _ „ T 

rrom the London Gazette, June 10, 1775 

a day. Military leaders now 

believe that men must be taught at least two years before 
they can be called trained soldiers. At first, therefore, the 
minute-men at Cambridge and other towns around Boston 
formed an armed crowd rather than an army. Each 
man had brought his own gun, with a small stock of 
powder and bullets. Few were in uniform, most of the 
men being dressed as they were when the alarm sounded. 
It was astonishing that they had assembled so rapidly. 
It seemed as if they had sprung out of the ground at 
the stamp of some great leader's foot. The "patriots," 
with their committees of correspondence, had made plans 



152 



THE OUTBREAK OF WAR 



to meet just such an event as General Gage's ill-fated 
expedition. 

Second Continental Congress, May, 1775* — The Second 
Continental Congress met on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, 
at the Old State House. Thirteen colonies from New Hamp- 
shire to Georgia were represented. Nova Scotia, Quebec, 

and the Floridas held off. 

Chamber of Supplies, Watertown, June IS, 1775. rp,-, . . 1 ... , 11 

hintlemen. I heir inhabitants had no 

THE Welfare of our Country ag3in induces us to urge your . . , 

exertions in fending to the Magazine in this place, what interest in the CaUSC WHlCh 
can be procured of the following Articles. Salt Pork, Beans,-. 

Peas, Vinegar and Blankets, the prizes whereof as wellas -iiro c VirincrinO" tVlP CltViPr 

thrCarting fhaJl be allowed according to the Cuftom of your Place wa3 ullll b 111 6 Lllc ^LllCt 

•rnich we def.re you to certify— It is of the utmoft Importance that ^l^njp,, tnrrpfVlPr TTnw 

the Army (hould be fupplicd agreeable to the Relblve of the Con- COlOIlieb UJgeilltJr. HOW 

orrfs more efpecial/y with thefe Articles, the four firft of which are , j*j* 1_ J t. 

neceffary for the Subfiflence as well as the Health of the Men, and the COnQltlOnS had Cliang- 
«he oiher for their Comfort— The occafion of the Deficiency in < 

Blmhli is moniy owing to a number of Men enlifled from Bofloa e( j SmCC the first COIlgrCSS 
»nd other Towns which have been vacated, and they all mud be ° 

procured immedately or out worthyCouncrymen will fufTer- met J R September, eight 

As the Country affords every thing in plenty neceiiary tolublilt r > o 

the A rmy, and we cannot at prefent obtain many things but by your , v 1 • 1 rpv 1 1 

Afliftance, we affureourMyes that you will act your partsas worthily JllOIlUlb Cell 11CI I J. 11C UC1C 
u you have done and hope that the Event of all our exertions will . . . 

be the sanation ofour Country. gates were assembled now, 

To the Selectmen and Committee m 

cfcorrt/pcuknufor the Town not to devise ways of 

of ,t t ,ii*Hstftiaufct3*, David Cheever, per Order or ' 

^A^t- committee of supplies, compelling Great Britain 

Call for Food and Blankets to repeal the " intolerable " 

June 18, 1775 . , 

laws, but to manage a war 

which had actually begun. This was more serious business. 
Congress decided to make the cause of Massachusetts that 
of all the colonies. It promptly adopted the New England 
militia encamped around Boston as a "Continental" army. 
Steps were taken to raise other troops and find food and sup- 
plies for all. A delegate from Virginia, the foremost soldier 
in America, George Washington, was unanimously chosen 
commander-in-chief. Washington set out for Cambridge, 
the headquarters of the army, on June 21. He had proceeded 
scarcely twenty miles from Philadelphia when a rider hurry- 
ing with messages to Congress gave him the news of another 
battle with the British. 

Bunker Hill, June 17. — Boston could not be attacked 
directly except by a narrow neck of land, called Boston Neck, 



BUNKER HILL 



183 



which General Gage had covered with batteries. On the 
north and on the south, however, were two peninsulas, 
crowned by hills, which reached out toward the city. These 
hills were called Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights. 
Batteries placed on them could soon destroy Boston. To 
forestall such 
a danger Gen- 
eral Gage de- 
cided to occupy 
them on June 
18. The Ameri- 
can leaders 
learned of the 
British plans 
and determined 
to act first. 
On the night 
of June 16 Col- 
onel William 
Prescott with 
1,200 men stole 
quietly along 
the neck of the 





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\ ^^ 


-g&? 





Boston, Bunker Hill, and Charlestown 



northern peninsula and over Bunker Hill to Breed's Hill, 
which was somewhat lower but nearer Boston. His men 
could hear the regular monotonous cry of "All's well" 
uttered by sentinels on the ships in the Charles River. 
Silently and rapidly, with pick and shovel, they threw up 
earthworks. Within these they constructed low platforms 
of earth or boards to enable them to fire across the top. 
The British could scarcely believe their eyes when morning 
dawned. 

The British officers did not think that raw militia would 
resist a direct attack. They might have seized the neck of 



184 



THE OUTBREAK OF WAR 



the peninsula and occupied Bunker Hill, which would have 
turned the tables on the colonial troops. But they decided 
to attack in front. Prescott, when he saw their red lines 
advancing up the hill, knowing that his men had few bayonets 

and only a small stock of 
powder, told his men to wait 
until they saw "the whites of 
their eyes," to "aim at the 
handsome coats," and to 
"pick off the commanders." 
At the first fire whole lines 
of British went down, and 
their comrades fell back in 
disorder. Again they ad- 
vanced in the face of a mur- 
derous fire, and again they 
fell back, leaving the ground 
covered with dead and 
wounded. General Howe, 
who was in command, order- 
ed a third attack. Suddenly 
the firing from the redoubt 
slackened and ceased. The powder of the colonial soldiers 
was used up. They had nothing left save the butts of their 
muskets and stones. The consequence was that the British 
soon drove them back across Bunker Hill and out of the 
peninsula. The British paid dearly for their victory, losing 
over a thousand men in killed and wounded. No wonder 
one of the colonial officers remarked that they would like 
to sell another hill at the same price! 

Making an Army. — Washington arrived at Cambridge 
on July 2, about two weeks after the battle, and took com- 
mand of the army the following day. His first task was to 
begin the soldierly training of the bands of farmers and 




Bunker Hill Monument 



MAKING AN ARMY 



185 



mechanics which made up the revolutionary force. He must 
also procure powder, bullets, and cannon. Many cannon 
and a large amount of powder had already been seized by 
Ethan Allen and a band of "Green Mountain Boys" at Fort 
Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. 
The cannon could not be 
brought to Cambridge until the 
snows of the next winter made 
it easy to haul them. Other 
needed supplies were obtained 
by the capture of a British store- 
ship as it was nearing Boston. 
Washington showed great pa- 
tience and tact, as well as firm- 
ness, in the tedious work of 
preparing the army for war. 

Among the soldiers were many 
Irish, Scotch-Irish, and German 
immigrants. 1 Whole companies, 
especially in Pennsylvania, con- 
tained few or no English col- 
onists. Some of the soldiers 
had seen service in European 
armies, others in the recent war 
with the French and Indians. Many of the farmers, accus- 
tomed to life on the frontier or to hunting, readily learned 
the lessons of warfare. 

While Washington was busy with his task at Cambridge, 




George Washington in 1775 
After the portrait by Peale 



1 By the Revolution the thirteen colonies ceased to be dependencies of Eng- 
land. They became instead parts of a new nation formed in North America. 
From this time the people leaving Europe for America are thought of, not 
so much as emigrants from Europe and subjects of a European kingdom, as 
immigrants into the United States and members of the Republic. For this 
reason the words " immigrant " and " immigration" will now be used where 
" emigrant " and " emigration " have been used. 



i86 



THE OUTBREAK OF WAR 




an attempt was made to invade Canada and seize Quebec. 
The colonial troops reached Quebec but failed to cap- 
ture it. Their attempt had one important consequence: 
it alarmed the British government so much that the 
army brought together to subdue the rebellious colonists 
was divided and a part sent to Canada. This lessened 
the number of troops which Washington had to deal 
with directly. 

General Howe, who had taken the place of General Gage, 
made no attempt to attack Washington's camps about Bos- 
ton. Washington did not com- 
plete his preparations until win- 
ter had come and almost gone. 
On the night of March 4, 
1776, he made a move similar 
to the seizure of Bunker Hill. 
His soldiers occupied Dorches- 
ter Heights and built two 
redoubts. General Howe re- 
marked, when morning came 
and he saw the forts through his glass, "The rebels have done 
more in one night than my whole army would have done in 
a month." The British admiral said, "If they retain pos- 
session of the heights I cannot keep a ship in the harbor." 
Howe decided at once that he must either storm forts far 
stronger than Prescott's defences on Bunker Hill or with- 
draw from Boston. He chose the latter course, and on March 
17 the British fleet, with his army aboard, left the city, bound 
for Halifax. 

Boston after the Siege. — Nearly a thousand inhabitants 
of Boston left with the British. Among them were the former 
officials of the king in the colony and many of the older 
famiHes, who formed the aristocracy of the town. They 
went into voluntary exile because they sympathized with the 



One of the Guns Drawn from 

tlconderoga to boston for 

the Siege 




QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 187 

British cause and feared to remain in Boston without the 
protection of the soldiers. 

Boston's direct experience with war was over. The in- 
habitants had suffered hardships from famine and disease. 
Charlestown, a neighboring town, 
burned during the battle of Bun- 
ker Hill, was still a scene of utter 
desolation. The people bravely 
went to work to make Boston 
secure against another British in- 
vasion. Every able-bodied man 

i 1.1 j Flag of the United Colo- 

gave two days each week toward NIES IN I?7S _ I777 

rebuilding the fort in the harbor 

and strengthening the other defenses. In a few days Wash- 
ington, with the main body of his army, departed for New 
York, which he thought the British would soon attempt 
to seize. The capture of Boston was Washington's first 
victory. 

QUESTIONS 

1. In what ways did the colonists prepare for war with the mother 
country? 

2. Why did the British commander at Boston send an expedition to Con- 
cord? What happened during the journey? Why was it harder after this to 
make a peaceful settlement? 

3. How was it possible for the patriots so quickly to gather a body of 
men for the siege of Boston? Why is this body of men called "an armed 
crowd" rather than an army? 

4. What colonies sent representatives to the Second Continental Congress? 
Why did some English colonies fail to send representatives? What was the 
difference between the work of the First Continental Congress and the Second? 

5. Why did the colonists occupy a position near Bunker Hill? Which side 
was victorious in the Battle of Bunker Hill? 

6. How did Washington secure additional materials of war? What impor- 
tant result came from the attempt to seize Quebec? 

7. How did Washington finally drive the British army out of Boston? What 
inhabitants of Boston sided with the mother country and went into 
exile? 



i88 



THE OUTBREAK OF WAR 



EXERCISES 

i. Locate on an outline map of Boston and the vicinity all places men- 
tioned in this chapter, and tell what happened at each. 

2. Examine the two old accounts of the Battle of Lexington on pages 180 
and 181 and tell in what ways they differ. 

Important Dates : 

April 19, 1775. Battles of Lexington and Concord. Beginning of the 

Revolution. 
May 10, 1775. The Second Continental Congress meets at Philadelphia 

and takes over the conduct of the war. 
June 17, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill. 
March 17, 1776. General Gage, with his entire army and 1,000 loyalists, 

abandons Boston. 




First Flag of the 

United States 
Adopted by Congress in 

1777 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION 

Great Britain and the Colonial Rebellion. — Washington's 
success in driving the British army from Boston did not 
convince either parliament or King George that the time had 
come for conciliatory measures. It made them only more 
anxious to put forth every effort to subdue the rebellious 
colonists. They had already refused to reply to a petition of 
the Continental Congress for a friendly settlement of the 
difficulties. They had also made the blunder of hiring Ger- 
man soldiers to swell the numbers of their army, forgetting 
the fact that a little over a hundred years before the attempt 
to use foreign soldiers to subdue Englishmen had cost 
Charles I and his principal minister their heads. Parlia- 
ment also passed an act cutting off the colonies from all 
trade while the "rebellion" lasted. 

Thinking about Separation. — The colonists had begun to 
think that there was little hope of fair treatment from parlia- 
ment and king. At first only a few leaders like Samuel 
Adams, John Adams, and Patrick Henry thought it useless 
to expect parliament to change its manner of dealing. Most 
of the colonists would have been glad to return to friendly 
relations with the mother country. Washington, when on 
his way to Cambridge in 1775, had promised the members of 
the New York provincial congress that he would work toward 
that end. As the winter passed with no better news from 
England, feeling changed. The colonists asked one another 
why, if they could not govern themselves in the British 
empire, they should not try to govern themselves out of it? 
If they must fight, why not fight for independence? 



iqo THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION 

Paine's Common Sense. — Thomas Paine, an Englishman 
who had recently settled in Philadelphia, published a remark- 
able pamphlet early in 1776. He called it Common Sense. 
Many of the colonists held kings in great reverence, believing 
that George III was their God-given ruler. Paine ridiculed 
such ideas. He bluntly called kings "sceptred savages" 
and "royal brutes." "Of more worth," he declared, "is 
one honest man to society . . . than all the crowned ruffians 

cu-4. /vr<*>oCu-*£j2y, p€e. cbrx- \Je> C<l en. jlhjw crvc>- 

Facsimile of the Conclusion of the Declaration of Independence 

In the writing of Jefferson, with the first three signatures. 

that ever lived." Monarchy instead of being the best form 
of government was, he said, the worst. And how absurd, he 
wrote, "to be always running three or four thousand miles 
with ... a petition, waiting four or five months for an 
answer," "or to suppose that a continent should be governed 
by an island." "The blood of the slain," he added, "cries, 
"Tis time to part.'" Much that Paine wrote was so simple, 
so convincing, such "common sense," that thousands read it 
and concluded that separation was necessary. 

The Declaration of Independence. — The colonies one by 
one advised their delegates in Congress to work for independ- 




THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 



191 



ence. Finally, on July 2, 1776, Congress voted "that these 
United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and 
independent states; . . . that all political connection be- 
tween them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to 
be, totally dissolved." Two days later, July 4, Congress 
adopted a formal Declaration of Independence, which 
Thomas Jefferson had written, announcing to the world the 
new purpose of the colonies. It stated the right to "life, 





Room in which the Declaration was Signed 



liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," which the colonists 
had claimed for themselves all along, and added a start- 
ling list of charges against the king. These were given as 
the reason for seeking independence. Perhaps some of the 
charges were not fair, for Jefferson was making a plea, and 
not writing a history. Most of them, however, were true. 

The Royalists or Tories. — About one-third of the inhab- 
itants of the thirteen colonies opposed separation from Great 
Britain. In New York and Pennsylvania the loyalists and 
patriots were about equally divided. The Quakers were 
opposed to war for any purpose. Many loyalists declared 



192 



THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION 



that if the colonies should win their independence from Great 
Britain, they would only fall victims to discord and desola- 
tion. The loyalists thought the patriot leaders self-seeking 
lawyers and shop-keepers, or debtors who wished to escape 
paying their British creditors. 




Independence Hall, Philadelphia 
Where the Continental Congress met 

Making New Governments. — The decision to separate 
from Great Britain compelled the colonists to remodel their 
provincial governments. Each colony now became a "state." 
The royal governors and other officers had already fled to 
England or taken refuge with the nearest British garrisons or 
fleets. William Franklin, the royalist governor of New Jersey, 
though the son of Benjamin Franklin, had been seized by 
the revolutionists and sent to a Connecticut prison. Not 
only must the vacant offices be filled, but the governments 
must be changed in part. John Adams said that the manu- 
facture of governments was as much talked of as saltpeter 
had been at the outbreak of war when powder was needed. 

The only governments which required little change were 
those of Connecticut and Rhode Island. There the people 



COLONIAL CONSTITUTIONS 



193 




had been permitted by the colonial charters to choose their 
officers, including their governors. The local government 
in town and country was left undisturbed. 

Colonial Constitutions. — In the other colonies the new 
form or frame of government was set forth in a document called 
a constitution. This was decided 
upon in a congress or convention 
of delegates representing the 
colony. In some cases it was re- 
ferred to the voters themselves. 
The first plan of a constitution in 
Massachusetts was rejected by 
the voters five to one. Each 
constitution explained not only 
what the officers could do, but 
what they could not do. The 
colonists had learned, either from 
bitter experience with their Eng- 
lish officers, or from their reading 
of European history, to distrust officials. Bills or lists of 
rights which the people claimed and which their officers 
must respect were inserted in each constitution. Many of 
these rights Englishmen had claimed as far back as the time 
of the Magna Charta. Others, far-sighted Englishmen and 
Europeans had only begun to claim in the seventeenth or 
eighteenth century. The principal ones were "Trial by 
Jury," "No Taxation without Representation," "Freedom 
of the Press," "Freedom of Elections," and the "Right of 
Assembly and Petition." 

Governors and Legislators. — Governors chosen by the 
people, or by their legislatures, took the place of royal gov- 
ernors. The colonists, fearing "one-man" power, were care- 
ful not to give their governors much authority. Most of the 
powers which the royal governors had exercised were now 



John Adams 



i 9 4 THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION 

given to the legislatures. The legislators were elected for 
only one or two years, to keep any of them from becoming 
overbearing or tyrannical through long enjoyment of office. 
Besides, the constitution-makers scattered the various powers 
among the law-makers, the governors, and the judges in such 
a way that one set of officials might act as a check upon 
another. 

Great care was taken to break away from many old-world 
customs. No kings, no nobles, no class with special privileges 
because of birth, such as existed almost everywhere in Europe, 
were permitted by any of the American constitutions. When 
some one in Virginia urged that the eldest son ought, at 
least, to have a double share of his father's estate, Jefferson 
replied, "Not until he can eat a double allowance of food 
and do a double allowance of work." x 

The work of making these constitutions interested not only 
the colonists but many Europeans, especially thoughtful 
Frenchmen. Twice during the war, first in 1778 and again 
in 1 78 1, collections of the constitutions were translated into 
French and published in Paris. The second collection was 
translated by a nobleman at the request of Benjamin 
Franklin. 

The First Union of the States. — To Congress belonged the 
harder task of making a frame of government which should 
bind the states together. Unlike the state conventions it 
could not simply remodel a government with which all 
were familiar. Although it began its work in June> 1776, 
it was not until the close of the following year that Con- 
gress agreed upon a constitution, called the "Articles of 
Confederation." One difficulty was the jealousy which the 
delegates from some of the states felt of the influence which 
other states appeared to have. This partly accounted for 

1 Before the Revolution the eldest son in Virginia, as in Great Britain, 
inherited the larger share of the father's estate. 



FIRST UNION OF THE STATES 



J 95 



the long delay of the states in accepting the "Articles," 
which went into force in 1781. They did not give the 
government much power. The "United States" was still 
little more than a name. The powers which the states con- 
sented to give the government of the Confederation were 
exercised by a Congress similar to the Continental Congress. 
The delegates had such a horror 
of kings that they did not even 
provide for a president. 

The formation of these new 
governments marks an epoch in 
the history of the world. The 
rights of the people were more 
carefully guarded than by any 
other governments that had ever 
existed. The work which John 
Adams, John Dickinson, Thomas 
Jefferson, James Madison, Ben- 
jamin Franklin, and other leaders 
did in the Continental Congress 
and in the state conventions was as important as the work 
of Washington's army in the field. Among the ablest was 
John Adams. No man had more good ideas on constitu- 
tion making. No one worked harder for the common good. 
He was busy from four o'clock in the morning until ten at 
night, and earned the title of the "Statesman of the 
Revolution." 

Chances of Success. — The colonists had two very differ- 
ent tasks. It was one thing to make over their colonial gov- 
ernments and suit them to new conditions. It was another 
to win their independence on the battle field. More than 
once as the Revolutionary War went on the chances of final 
success seemed against the colonists. The mother country 
had nearly all the advantages. She possessed a strong war 




Iohn Dickinson 
After Peak's portrait in Indepen- 
dence Hall, Philadelphia 



i 9 6 THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION 

fleet. Her army, though small, was well trained. Her gov- 
ernment owed a great deal of money, but had no difficulty in 
borrowing more, because it always paid its debts. 

The course of the war was influenced by the geographical 
situation, which gave the colonists one great advantage. 
This was their distance from England. In those days the 
voyage across the ocean took about six weeks, sometimes 
more than twice as long. Often an entire season passed be- 
fore England could send needed supplies or reinforcements 
to her armies. Furthermore, the colonies were stretched out 
in a straggling line over 1,300 miles between the sea and the 
mountains. The mountain barrier offered them a safe re- 
treat in case their armies were hard pressed. This was 
another advantage. 

For the British, the sea was naturally the base of opera- 
tions, that is, the place from which all expeditions started. 
On the sea they could assemble at any time a fleet of war 
ships and transports strong enough to carry the army any- 
where up and down the long coast. If their army marching 
inland was defeated or seriously threatened, it could hastily 
return to the coast, reorganize, and start again. By such 
waterways as Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson River their 
ships could go far into the interior. The Hudson and Cham- 
plain valleys together almost made a highway from New 
York to Canada, where the colonists had not risen in revolt. 
These valleys also separated one group of colonies from 
another. 

Capture of New York. — New York, lying at the gateway 
of the Hudson and possessing an excellent harbor, was 
marked by nature as the place which a sea-power like Great 
Britain would attempt to seize. If captured, it would become 
the center from which to carry on the work of subduing the 
rebellious colonists. Before General Howe's reinforcements 
reached him at Halifax and he was ready to sail to New York, 




REFERENCE MAP FOR THE REVOLUTION 
NORTHERN AND MIDDLE STATES, 



WASHINGTON AT TRENTON 197 

an attempt was made by the British to gain a foothold at 
Charleston, South Carolina, near the southern end of the 
colonial line. The attack was beaten off. In August, 1776, 
Howe appeared before New York. His army was larger, 
better equipped, and better disciplined than Washington's 
army. In a series of battles beginning on Brooklyn Heights 
and ending at Fort Washington, at the northern end of 
Manhattan Island, the colonial army was defeated and 
forced to retreat into New Jersey. 

Washington finally took refuge behind the Delaware River. 
As winter came on his army, half-staryed and scantily clothed, 
dwindled away. Only about 6,000 disheartened soldiers re- 
mained. Alarmed at the approach of the British, Con- 
gress withdrew from Philadelphia to Baltimore. Many of 
the Philadelphians hid their money and silver and sent 
their families into the country. Their fears were needless, 
for General Howe, on December 13, ordered his army into 
winter quarters in different New Jersey towns. He went 
back to New York to spend the holidays among loyalist 
friends. Some of the British thought that the war was over 
and began to talk of returning to England. 

Washington's Victory at Trenton. — A part of Howe's 
army was stationed at Trenton. It was made up of Germans, 
hired of their prince, the ruler of Hesse-Cassel, for $36 apiece. 
Washington formed a plan to capture them. He crossed the 
Delaware eight or nine miles above Trenton on Christmas 
night. The passage was difficult and dangerous because of 
the ice, and a part of his troops did not succeed in crossing 
at all. After they reached the eastern bank the soldiers 
marched on in the blinding storm. "The snow," writes 
one, "was tinged here and there with blood from the feet of 
the men who wore broken shoes." In the early morning 
Trenton was surrounded, and about one thousand Hessians 
were taken prisoners. Not an American was killed. It was 



198 



THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION 



a victory which put new courage into the army and raised 
the hopes of the colonists again. 

Princeton. — Washington gave the British another surprise 
a week later. Alarmed by the capture of the Hessians, Howe 
ordered General Cornwallis to unite the different bodies of 
troops. Meanwhile Washington, who had first returned to 
Philadelphia with 
his prisoners, had 
crossed the Dela- 
ware again 




Map of New York, 

New Jersey, and 

Pennsylvania 



January 2 Cornwallis thought that he had caught Washing- 
ton with his back to the river, which it was impossible 
to recross in the presence of a hostile army. Cornwallis 
exclaimed, "At last we have run down the pld fox, and 
we will bag him in the morning." Instead, Washington, 
leaving his campfires burning to deceive the British, marched 
around their lines toward Princeton. At Princeton he put 
to flight three regiments of British on their way to join Corn- 
wallis, and took many prisoners. 
At daybreak Cornwallis faced an empty camp, while the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1777 199 

booming of cannon in the direction of Princeton revealed to 
him the game that the "old fox" had played. Washington 
marched to the hills about Morristown, and the British con- 
cluded that it was wise to withdraw toward the Hudson. Few 
events have had a greater influence than the small battles 
at Trenton and Princeton. No one, in America or Europe, 
any longer doubted the skill and courage of the commander 
who could accomplish such wonders with a broken army. 

The Campaign of 1777. — General Howe had large plans 
for 1777. If the government gave him the reinforcements 
for which he asked, he would have 35,000 soldiers. These 
would be enough for two important expeditions. One would 
march toward Boston from Newport, in Rhode Island, which 
had been seized the fall before. The other would march 
upon Philadelphia, and, perhaps, after taking that, enter 
Virginia. But the government could not furnish the troops. 
The best it could do was to give him 8,000 of the soldiers 
who had been sent to Canada after the colonists had attacked 
Quebec. The safest way would have been to transport them 
by sea, but the government feared that the colonists would 
take advantage of their absence to make another attack 
on Canada. It was decided, therefore, that they should 
attempt to reach New York by the Champlain, Hudson, and 
Mohawk valleys. 

Burgoyne's Expedition. — The expedition from Canada 
was led by Sir John Burgoyne. He expected General Howe 
to send a force up the Hudson to meet him, but letters went 
so slowly in those days that before General Howe learned of 
the government's final plans he had left New York by sea, 
and was nearing the head of Chesapeake Bay, from which he 
intended to march on Philadelphia. He could not now turn 
back, and so Burgoyne was left to carry out the other plan 
alone. 

Burgoyne set out in June, 1777. He advanced by Lake 



200 THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION 

Champlain, and easily took Ticonderoga, the frontier fortress 
of northern New York. All went well until August, whin 
the army began to cross the portage from Lake George to 
the Hudson River. General Schuyler, who commanded the 
colonial forces in New York, put the axes and spades of his 
men to good use. He blocked the roads in every direction 
with fallen trees; he choked the rivers with earth and trees 
until they were impassable for boats with supplies; and he 
drove off the sheep and cattle. All food was destroyed or 
carted away. 

A British army, made up partly of Canadians, loyalists, 
and Indians, tried to join Burgoyne by way of the Mohawk 
Valley, but the German settlers drove it back with the help 
of a force under Benedict Arnold that had been sent by the 
colonial army. Another force of 1,000 men Burgoyne, in 
desperate need of supplies, sent to Bennington, Vermont. 
This army was almost totally destroyed by John Stark's 
New Hampshire minute-men and their neighbors, the " Green 
Mountain Boys." 

On October 17, 1777, near Saratoga, Burgoyne surrendered, 
though not until he had made several desperate efforts to 
fight his way out of the trap. His army, of which 6,000 men 
remained, half of them Germans, became prisoners. All 
sorts of supplies also fell into the hands of the colonial troops. 
The capture of an entire British army rilled the colonists 
with enthusiastic hopes. It encouraged the enemies of 
Great Britain in Europe. The credit of the victory belonged 
to General Schuyler, but it was given to General Gates, 
whom Congress had placed in command before the campaign 
ended. 

Capture of Philadelphia. — Meanwhile General Howe had 
succeeded in his campaign against Philadelphia. He had 
begun his march from the head of Chesapeake Bay about the 
Just of September. Washington attempted to check him at 



CAPTURE OE PHILADELPHIA 



20I 




Brandywine Creek, but was badly defeated. Nevertheless, 
he afterward managed his army so well that it took Howe 
two weeks to march the last twenty-six miles. Philadelphia 
was occupied September 26. It was now too late to go to 
Burgoyne's relief. In 1777 the British 
took a city and lost an army. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What did the colonists think in 1775 about 
separation from England? What things changed 
their minds by 1776? 

2. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? 
What did it say? Who opposed independence? 
Why did they oppose independence? Were there 
many of them? 

3. Why did the colonists have to make over 
their governments? Why did the people of Connect- 
icut and Rhode Island need to make fewer changes 
in government? 

4. What did the colonists put in their consti- 
tutions? Why did they take many powers away from their governors and 
give them to the legislatures? Why did they fix short terms for their 
legislators? How else did they guard against overbearing or tyrannical 
officers? What old-world customs did they keep out? 

5. Why was the task of Congress in making a frame of government harder 
than that of the states? Why did the delegates in Congress give the new 
government of the "United States" so little power? Why did they not pro- 
vide for a president? 

6. What advantages did the British have in the Revolution? What two 
advantages were on the side of the colonists? 

7. What region did the British seize before the end of 1776 which made 
up for the loss of Boston in March? Why were the small battles of Trenton 
and Princeton of great importance to the colonists? 

8. What was General Howe's plan for 1777? Why was General Burgoyne 
sent from Canada to New York? Why was he sent by the Champlain-Hudson 
route? 

9. Why did not General Howe help Burgoyne more? How was Burgoyne 
captured? 

10. What had the British gained during the third year of the war? What 
had thev lost? 



A Continental Sol- 
dier in 1777 



202 THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION 



EXERCISES 

i. Make a list of the arguments that patriot leaders like John Adams and 
Thomas Paine gave for complete separation from Great Britain, and another 
list of the arguments that the loyalists used against the step. 

2. Find out from one who knows whether the frame of government of the 
states today resembles that made during the Revolution, and in what way it 
differs. 

3. Make out a list of the gains of each side during the years 1775, 1776, 
and 1777. 

Important Dates : 

1776. July 4. The Declaration of Independence. 

1776. December 26. The Battle of Trenton. 

1777. September 26. Howe enters Philadelphia. 

1777. October 17. The surrender of General Burgoyne. 




The Liberty Bell 
In Independence Hall, Philadelphia 



CHAPTER XVIII 



LIFE IN WAR TIME 



What the War Did Not Do. — The Revolutionary War 
lasted seven years and yet few regions in the colonies saw an 
army of either friend or foe. The march to Concord or to 
Bennington was the longest expedition the British made in 
New England. They ravaged one or two Connecticut towns, 
burned Falmouth, Maine, and occupied Newport, and that 
was all the New Englanders 
saw of them after Boston was 
abandoned. 

Until 1780 life on the Vir- 
ginia plantations went on as 
usual, except that it was hard- 
er to market tobacco. The 
same is true of the colonies 
farther south. New Jersey 
and the Hudson River Valley 
suffered most. Even there 
the mischief was commonly 
done by bands of patri- 
ots or of loyalists determined 
to bring destruction upon one 
another. The presence of the 
British army did not always 
mean ruin to a neighborhood, for the officers frequently paid 
the farmers in gold and silver for the meat, flour, and vege- 
tables which they brought into camp. While General Howe's 
army was quartered in Philadelphia the farmers of eastern 



0" Hi, EXCELLENCY 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esquire. 

GENERAL .nd COMMANDER u. CHIEF of the Fo»«- 
of the Ukited Status of Akuica. 

T) Y Virtue of the Power and Direction to Me efp»- 
±J cialJy given, I hereby enjoin and require all Perfoni 
rending within feventy Miles of my Head Quarters to 
threfiS one Half of their Grain by die 1 ft Day of February, 
and the other Half by the ift Day of March next enfuing, 
on Pain, in Cafe of Failure, of having all that (hall re- 
main in Sheaves after the Period above mentioned, feiied 
by the Commiflaries and Quarter-Mafters of the Army, 
and paid for as Straw. 

GIVEN under vrj Hand, at Head Quarters, near 
tie Valley Forge, in Piikde/piia County, this loti 
Day of December, lyyj. 

C. WASHINGTON. 
By His Excellency's Command, 
Robert H. Harrison, Sec'y. 

Lancaster, iw™ „ john ounlak 

Washington's Orders to the 

Farmers Living near 

Valley Forge 




204 LIFE IN WAR TIME 

Pennsylvania had no trouble in selling their produce at good 
prices. 

Army Supplies. — The armies were likely to suffer for food 
as soon as they moved far from the waterways. The coun- 
try was thinly settled and little food could be found in any 
one region. The roads were poor and there were few wagons. 
In 1778 a cargo of clothing, sorely needed by the colonial 

soldiers, reached a 
port in North Caro- 
lina, but it was 
necessary to send 
to Pennsylvania for 
wagons. The next 
year Philadelphia 
had more flour than 
it could sell, while 

Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge Washington S sol- 
diers in eastern 
New Jersey and on the Hudson were starving. One 
difficulty was that the officers whom Congress put in charge 
of supplies did not understand how to manage the matter. 

Valley Forge. — This partly accounts for the sufferings 
of Washington's army while Howe occupied Philadelphia. 
Washington's camp was at Valley Forge, a village twenty- 
five miles northwest of the city. The soldiers lived in huts 
such as frontiersmen usually built, but they were in want of 
blankets, clothing, shoes, and even food. About Christmas 
Washington wrote to Congress that 2,898 men were unlit 
for duty because of lack of clothing. Many whose shoes 
had worn out cut blankets into strips and wound these 
around their feet. Sometimes the only food they had was 
dough baked in their fire-places. Washington was surprised 
that his soldiers did not all abandon him. Indeed 2,300 did 
desert and joined the British army in Philadelphia, where 



MONEY AND INDUSTRIES 



205 
At the close 



they were sure of food. Others went home 
of the winter only 5,000 remained. 

Paper Money. — One reason why General Howe could 
obtain plenty of food for his army, while Washington's sol- 
diers were on the verge of starvation, was that the British 
could pay in gold and silver. Washington was not so for- 
tunate. Congress could not raise enough money by taxation 






ife&d^T<4nBft 



SONt SIXTH of a 
DOLLAR 

Accordmg\ 
to a Refolu-l/o 

tionofCoN-lfo 
gress, paf- <H 



fed a/ Phi 
ladelphia, 

February 17, 1776. 




|?One Sixth of a Dollar. 




^Printed by Hall & Sellers,* 
£? in Philadelphia. 1776. § 



Face 



Back 



Paper Money of the Revolution 
Reduced facsimile 

and tried to pay expenses with paper money, as the colonies 
had done many times before. The states also issued paper 
money. This money sometimes lost a tenth of its value in 
a single month. Prices as a result rose rapidly. In 1781 a 
pair of shoes cost $100 in paper money, a bushel of potatoes 
$24, a bushel of corn $40, and a cow $1,200. It is not 
surprising that the Pennsylvania farmers were ready to 
exchange their products for British gold. 

Industries during the War. — When the colonies declared 
themselves independent, it was no longer necessary to obey 



206 LIFE IN WAR TIME 

the British laws checking the manufacture of hats, cloths, 
and steel. At the same time the demand for them increased 
because trade with Europe was either cut off or was carried 
on with great difficulty. Most people dressed in homespun, 
as they had done in the earlier time. Makers of guns, saddles, 
and powder were kept busy. Towns like Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts, and Waterbury, Connecticut, became famous for 
gun making. At the Principio Iron Works in Maryland can- 
non balls were cast for the Continental army. It was very 
difficult to obtain enough salt, since the supply from Europe 
was interrupted. The salt wells near Syracuse, New York, 
were known, but salt from them was not marketed until 
several years later. Under the circumstances it was neces- 
sary to evaporate sea water. For this purpose tanks were 
constructed at New Bedford and on Cape Cod. 

Commerce. — The war did not put an end to foreign trade. 
This trade must have been large, for in the first four years 
of the war the English captured over 500 vessels, most of 
them near the coast. About 200 were engaged in trade 
with Europe or the West Indies. American merchants often 
armed their vessels, receiving from Congress letters author- 
izing them to capture vessels of the enemy. These armed 
ships owned by private persons were called privateers. They 
scoured the seas for English merchant vessels, which they 
took to Europe for sale. They also carried cargoes. With 
the money so obtained they bought European goods needed 
in the states. 

The trade with the French and Dutch West Indies was 
especially lively. The Dutch were glad to exchange salt- 
peter, from which powder was made, for Virginia tobacco. 
If the mouth of Chesapeake Bay was too closely watched by 
British cruisers, the tobacco was hauled in wagons to the 
North Carolina coast, and shipped from there to the West 
Indies. In 178 1, when the British admiral captured the Dutch 



THE LOYALISTS 207 

island of St. Eustatia, he found hogsheads of tobacco and 
casks of rice piled up on the shore by the hundred. Some of 
this tobacco was owned by British merchants who were 
making money rapidly in trading with the "rebels." Within 
four years twenty-four million pounds of Chesapeake tobacco 
found their way to the English market. From 1779 until 
the war closed trade with Europe brought to the states nearly 
all the commodities they needed. Travelers were astonished 
to see that the colonists were prospering in spite of the war. 

Sufferings of the Loyalists. — The Revolution was a civil 
war for two reasons. In the first place, English colonists 
were fighting against Englishmen from the mother country. 
In the second place, the colonists were fighting against one 
another. Before the war ended nearly 50,000 colonists 
served on the British side either as militia or as regular sol- 
diers. Some in small bands, especially in South Carolina 
and Georgia, waged war with their neighbors. Such bands, 
whether of loyalists or patriots, were more cruel than the 
regular troops of either side. 

In the end the loyalists lost nearly everything they owned. 
Their lands were seized by the states and commonly used to 
reward the Continental soldiers. In many regions they were 
fortunate if they escaped being tarred and feathered. 

Exiles in Canada. — Many of the loyalists were driven 
into exile. They went principally to Nova Scotia or to 
the western part of the province of Quebec. The British 
government treated them generously, giving heads of families 
500 acres of land and single men 300. They were also given 
tools with which to work. 

Two Other Migrations. — During the war there were two 
other migrations. One was from the coast towns to the 
interior of the states. The trade of many coast towns was 
ruined by the nearness of British ships, cruising off shore on 
the watch for colonial vessels. A part of their inhabitants 



208 



LIFE IN WAR TIME 



were obliged to find employment elsewhere. Others moved 
to safer places, taking their industries with them. The result 
was, as a French traveller remarked, that the colonists gained 
not only freedom, but a more even spread of their population. 
The second migration was more important. It passed 
over the mountains into the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. 
Its beginnings go back to the French and Indian War. 




\X / *r.. ; <...i 1 ,- f , 1 h 




NEW YORK 



Q~^ 



i" / / 






*N: 



up . — ^: 

T H ° „C A R O \L I N A*^£ 

n c v J , ' f \ < ^A- 

7^ l ' SOUTH CAROLINA^ X, /^ 



Mountain Trails and the Western Country 

Hunters and trappers paid little attention to the rule of the 
British government concerning the great Indian territory west 
of the Appalachians. 1 Three mountain trails led from the 
older settlements toward the west One was Braddock's road 
to Pittsburgh. Another led to the "blue grass " region of Ken- . 
tucky through Cumberland Gap, where Virginia, Tennessee, 
and Kentucky now meet. The third followed the Holston 
River or the French Broad into the valley of the Tennessee. 
The story of the pioneers who crossed the mountains, espe- 
cially that of Daniel Boone, the greatest of frontier hunters 
and fighters, is thrilling. 

1 See page 160. 



KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE 



209 




Cumberland Gap 



Beginnings of Kentucky. — In 1769 Boone explored the 
trail through Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, then a part 
of Virginia. The colonial assembly planned to make it the 
regular highway into their western lands, but it long remained 
simply a path. In 1774 James Harrod and thirty compan- 
ions laid out Harrodsburg on the Kentucky River, and the 
year following 
Boone founded 
Boo nesbor- 
ough near by. 
Each settler 
marked off his 
own farm. 
The land was 



plentiful and 

it made little 

difference 

whether he took 400 or 1,000 acres. Most of the early 

settlers in Kentucky depended upon hunting and trapping 

to obtain furs, which they sold in the colonies or states. 

Tennessee. — The story of early Tennessee was similar. 
In 1769 a family settled on Watauga Creek in eastern Ten- 
nessee. The following year James Robertson, whom the 
people of Tennessee like to call the "father" of their state, 
settled in the same region. Many others soon joined the 
new settlements. 

The Revolutionary War instead of delaying the growth 
of the western settlements, helped them. Many colonists, 
leaving the regions threatened by war, took their way over the 
mountains. The great danger came from Indian attacks 
supported by the British garrison at Detroit or at other posts 
taken from France in 1763. The Indians did not require 
much urging, for the settlers were invading their hunting 
grounds. 



2IO 



LIFE IN WAR TIME 



Wyoming Massacre. — The Germans and Scotch-Irish of 
western Pennsylvania and New York suffered the most. One 
band of Indians fell upon the settlements in the Wyoming 
Valley, where the Susquehanna River breaks through the 
mountains of northern Pennsylvania. The Indians drove 
from the valley those whom they did not kill, burned their 
homes, and laid waste their fields. 

The people of the frontier were obliged to protect them- 
selves. Washington could not spare any of his troops. The 

struggle was especially fierce in 
1777 and 1778. The Indian, 
like the white man, was fighting 
for his home. Both used the 
knife, the tomahawk, and the 
gun. Their warfare was more 
cruel than even that of loyalists 
and patriots near the coast. 

The Conqueror of the North- 
west. — In 1778 George Rogers 
Clark, one of the greatest hun- 
ters and Indian fighters in Ken- 
tucky, formed the plan of driving 
the British garrisons out of the 
Northwest; that is, from the region lying between the Ohio 
River and the Great Lakes. Clark thought it was time to 
attack the real enemy behind the Indian. He gathered a 
small force of Indian fighters, mostly mountaineers and 
hunters, from the western part of Virginia. Governor Patrick 
Henry of Virginia encouraged him with money and good 
words. 

In May, 1778, Clark's little army of 150 men boarded sev- 
eral flat-boats and rowed or drifted down the Ohio River. 
Nearly opposite the Tennessee River, Clark landed and led 
his force northward across the level plains to the old French 




George Rogers Clark 



CLARK AND THE NORTHWEST 211 

villages in Illinois. He reached the first, Kaskaskia, on the 
Mississippi River, on the evening of July 4, 1778, surprised 
the unsuspecting garrison, and occupied the town. It proved 
easy to induce the French to accept American rule, particu- 
larly since Clark could tell them, what they had not yet 
heard, that the French king had recently become the ally of 
the United States. Some of the adventurous young French- 
men joined Clark's force. The Indians, who called him the 
"Big Knife Chief," were overawed by the union of Ameri- 
cans and French and ceased to oppose him. 

Clark's greatest exploit was the recapture of Fort Vincennes 
on the Wabash, which the British commander at Detroit had 
seized in the preceding winter. The rivers were full and the 
lowlands flooded. Clark's men while on their march were 
often obliged to wade in icy water. Sometimes it was up to 
their chins. He surprised the British garrison and compelled 
it to surrender. His success not only protected the settlers 
on the frontier and in Kentucky, but also gave the United 
States a claim to the Northwest when peace was made. For 
this reason Clark is called the conqueror of the Northwest. 1 

QUESTIONS 

1 . Where did the war do great damage? Why did the colonial armies some- 
times suffer from want? Why did the British armies fare better? 

2. Why did Congress use paper money? Give examples of prices because 
of its use. 

3. What new industries were started during the Revolution? 

4. What trade was stopped and what trade was continued or started during 
the war? 

5. Give two reasons why the Revolution may be called a "Civil" war. 
How many colonists served in the British armies? 

6. How were the loyalists treated? What did many of them do? 

7. Describe three emigrations that went on during the Revolution. Why 
did the westward movement go on faster than ever? 

1 The region which Clark had seized was nearly as large as the thirteen 
colonies. They contained 341,752 square miles, while the Northwest contained 
265,878. 



212 



LIFE IN WAR TIME 



8. How did the pioneers in the West live? Why were they in great danger? 
Who were their leaders? What happened in the Wyoming Valley? 

0. What plan did George Rogers Clark form in 1778? What did he accom- 
plish? Why did the French of the Illinois country submit readily and some 
of them join Clark? 

EXERCISES 

1. On an outline map shade the regions thai saw British armies before 17S0. 

2. Visit any museum having Revolutionary relics and describe the objects 
used in everyday life of those days. 

3. Collect pictures of Revolutionary relics. 

4. Locate on the map, page 208, the three roads to the West and the route 
of George Rogers Clark. 

5. What slates now form the region won for the United States by Clark? 




A Frontier Settlement — Boonesborough 



CHAPTER XIX 

HOW THE FRENCH HELPED THE COLONISTS 

Good News from France. — In the winter of 1 777-1 778 the 
outlook for the colonial cause seemed dark. Not only was 
the Continental army at Valley Forge in distress from lack 
of food and clothing, but a group of officers and members of 
Congress plotted to get rid of Washington and put Gates in 
his place. Their plan came to nothing, and with spring news 
arrived that on February 6 King Louis XVI of France had 
become the ally of the young republic. 

From the beginning of the troubles between England and 
her colonies the French had looked on with increasing inter- 
est. Many Frenchmen were eager for a chance of revenge on 
account of the losses which their country had suffered in the 
recent war. Others were interested in the cause of the colo- 
nists. They were ready to cheer on men who claimed the 
right to govern themselves. They admired the Americans 
also because the colonial farmers and planters appeared to 
be living more natural lives than Europeans. In America 
there were no princes or lords. Every man seemed to have 
an equal opportunity to make the most of himself. 

As soon as the war broke out Congress sent agents to the 
countries of Europe, hoping for aid against Great Britain. 
Fortunately one of the commissioners to France was Ben- 
jamin Franklin. His homely sayings in Poor Richard's 
Almanac, his clever inventions, like the stove, and his dis- 
covery, by means of a kite, that lightning is electricity, had 
already made him famous. He was regarded as a scientist 



214 THE FRENCH HELPED THE COLONIES 





and a philosopher. His simple manners and dress helped win 
the love o\ the French, who were growing weary oi wigs and 
laees and rallies. Franklin styles, Franklin caps, Franklin 
snuff-boxes, and Franklin walking-sticks became the craze 

in Paris. His portraits and 
busts appeared everywhere, 
until he declared to his daugh- 
ter that her "father's face was 
as well known as the moon." 

The French first aided the 
colonies secret ly, giving cloth- 
ing, powder, and guns for the 
Continental arm)- to Franklin 
\ or the other commissioners. 
I Similar aid was obtained from 
^ Spain. Besides, several million 
dollars were lent to the Uni- 
ted States, to be repaid when 
influential officials thought the 
time had now come for an attack upon the ancient enemy 
of France. Others wished to wait until the colonial troops 
gained a decisive victory. The news of the capture of 
Burgoyne and his army put an end to their hesitation, and 
Louis XVI agreed to a treaty of alliance. 

Lafayette and Steuben. — Many young Frenchmen had 
already come to America on their own account to help the 
colonists, some in search of adventure or glory, others because, 
like the Americans, they wanted to light for "liberty." No 
other became so famous or gave so much valuable service 
as the Marquis de Lafayette, a young nobleman of great 
wealth and influential family. Lafayette was barely twenty 
years of age in 1777 when he joined Washington's army. 
He had been educated in a military school and was given a 
high rank in the Continental army. He generously served 



Benjamin Franklin 

After the portrait by Dupkssi 



peace was made. 



1783 
Some 



VALUE OF THE FRENCH ALLIANCE 



215 



without pay. Washington came to love him as if he were 
a son. His name is still remembered with affection by 
Americans. 

Another foreigner who was of much assistance was Baron 
Steuben, a Prussian nobleman. Steuben was an experienced 
officer, having served long under 
Frederick the Great, the most 
famous general of the time. 
During the dreary winter at 
Valley Forge Steuben trained 
the soldiers in the European 
mode of fighting. Two Polish 
nobles also fought bravely for the 
cause — Kosciuszko, who helped 
win the victory over Burgoyne, 
and Pulaski, who died fighting 
at the head of his troops in the 
attempt to recapture Savannah. 

Value of the French Alliance. 




Marquis de Lafayetti; 
After a French engraving of his time 



The French strengthened 
the colonists on the sea, where they were weakest. Ever 
since the disasters of the French and Indian War, France 
had been busy rebuilding her ruined fleet. In 1778 she had 
nearly as many battle-ships as England. A year later the 
French persuaded the Spaniards to join them in the war, 
and then their united fleets were able to dispute the mastery 
of the seas with the British. From 1778, and especially 
from 1779, the English were too busy defending their colo- 
nies in the West Indies and in the East Indies, and their 
fortress of Gibraltar at the entrance of the Mediterranean, 
to give the greatest part of their attention to the war in 
America. 

As soon as the British government knew that war with 
France was certain, General Clinton, who had taken Flowe's 
place at Philadelphia, was ordered to return to New York and 



216 THE FRENCH HELPED THE COLONIES 

to send 8,000 of his troops to the West Indies to attempt the 
conquest of the French islands. Washington pursued the 
British, attacked them at Monmouth, and hastened their 
retreat. He then encamped at White Plains, near New 
York. He was not strong enough to attack the city. A 
French fleet appeared off the coast, but did not attempt to 
force an entrance to the harbor. It finally sailed for the 
West Indies after a storm had prevented an attack upon 
Newport. General Clinton, however, soon withdrew the 
Newport garrison to New York. 

New Enemies of Great Britain. — Before long the British 
government added to the number of its enemies. British war 
ships claimed the right to search the merchant ships of other 
countries in order to see if they were supplying the enemy 
with powder, guns, or anything else needed in war. In 
doing this they paid so little attention to the rights of other 
nations that the Dutch, the Danes, the Prussians, the Swedes, 
and the Russians prepared to resist by force. With the 
Dutch the quarrel led to war. 

All this was fortunate for Washington and the colonial 
cause. Congress and the army were in a desperate situation. 
The paper money was fast losing its value. Another mis- 
fortune added to Washington's trials. Benedict Arnold, 
one of the ablest and bravest of his officers, whom he had 
trusted as a friend, went over to the British. What made 
Arnold's treachery still blacker was his attempt to betray the 
fortifications at West Point, the strongest position on the 
Hudson. His plans were discovered in time to save West 
Point, but he escaped to New York. He served under the 
British flag until the end of the war, ravaging parts of 
Connecticut and Virginia, and making his name a by-word 
among his fellow countrymen. 

Exploits on the Sea. — The only war ships that the Ameri- 
cans possessed were remodeled merchant vessels. No one of 



EXPLOITS ON THE SEA 



217 



them was large enough to engage in battle with an English 
ship-of-the-line. The British fleet soon drove from the sea 
the few ships that Congress had armed. If the control of 
the Atlantic Ocean as a base of operations was to be taken 
from the British, it must be by the French fleets. Neverthe- 
less, captains of American privateers, occasionally of war 
ships, did great harm to British trade, 
capturing 320 merchant vessels in 
1777 alone. 

The hero of the greatest exploit 
of the little colonial navy was John 
Paul Jones. In 1779 the French 
king lent Jones a large remodeled 
merchant vessel, in order that he 
might attack British merchant 
ships as they were entering or leav- 
ing their home ports. Jones called 
his ship the Bon Homme Richard, 
in honor of his friend Franklin and 
Franklin's famous almanac. 

In September, 1779, the Richard had a terrible fight with 
the British frigate 1 Serapis near the mouth of the Humber 
River, on the eastern coast of England. The Serapis was 
stronger and swifter. The only chance of victory for Jones 
was to close with his enemy and lash the two ships together. 
This he did after the Bon Homme Richard was on fire. His 
men then boarded the Serapis and compelled the British to 
surrender. The Richard was now sinking, and Jones trans- 
ferred his crew and those who had been wounded to the 
Serapis. A few hours later the Richard sank, carrying down 
the brave men who had fallen in the struggle. 

War in the South, 1778-1781. — In 1778 Clinton took 

1 A ship-of-the-line is a battle-ship. A frigate was smaller, carrying 28 to 
44 guns. The Serapis carried 44. 




John Paul Jones 
After the etching by A. Varen 



218 THE FRENCH HELPED THE COLONIES 

advantage of the absence of the French fleet in the West 
Indies to shift the war to the southern states. Washington 
could not send the southern patriots much help. For a 
time the British had things their own way in Georgia and 
South Carolina. They took Savannah in 1778, and Charles- 
ton in 1780. The revolutionary army in these states was 
either captured or broken up. 

The conquest of the Carolinas was far from complete, as 
Major Ferguson, commander of the best loyalist regiment in 
the British service, learned to his cost. Within a few weeks 
after a Continental army under General Gates had been dis- 
persed at Camden, Ferguson ventured into the mountains. 
The settlers assembled quickly under the leadership of 
Sevier and other pioneers, surrounded Ferguson at King's 
Mountain October 7, 1780, and killed or captured his whole 
force. 

Marion, Pickens, and Sumter. — Other fearless patriots 
like Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter 
kept the flame of revolution burning in the South. They 
formed small bands of volunteers, who came and went as 
they wished, and served at their own expense. Their men 
were wretchedly equipped and clothed, but full of zeal and 
patriotism. Such a band would lie hidden in the deep forests 
and mountain valleys until an opportunity came to surprise 
a party of British foragers or their loyalist allies. Marks- 
men then stealthily approached the British camps and shot 
the soldiers as they went about their ordinary pursuits. It 
was a new kind of warfare and greatly annoyed the British. 
Cornwallis, who was in command of the British army at the 
South, wrote home calling Sumter "the greatest plague in 
the country." "But for Sumter and Marion," he said, 
"South Carolina would be at peace." 

What Greene accomplished. — After the defeat of Gates, 
Washington sent Nathaniel Greene, his best general, with a 




REFERENCE MAP FOR THE REVOLUTION 
SOUTHERN STATES 



THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 



219 




1 iGuilforJQ ._ Hilhbo, 

CourCHoufe V-©, 1 R - T H 

DtFtAIED;q^A\R O L»kl N 

...«*. KIN , G; > « 0UNT f IN . VS' -". 

„ O • Z \ \ 

\feb U.T H, \ 
CAROLINA 



P'ilmington. 



small army to the Carolinas. Although Morgan, one of his 
officers, promptly broke up a British force at Cowpens and 
Greene himself checked Cornwallis at Guilford Court House, 
his army was not strong enough to defeat the British in open 
battle. But the result of his skilful management was that 
Cornwallis was obliged 
to withdraw to the 
coast to obtain sup- 
plies and reinforce- 
ments. 

Cornwallis in Vir- 
ginia. — In the spring 
of 1 78 1 Cornwallis 
abandoned the half- 
finished conquest of 
the Carolinas and 
marched into Virginia, 
which he regarded as 
the center of colonial resistance. If Virginia were subdued, 
he thought, the king's authority would again be respected. 
Already a British force was fighting in Virginia against a 
Continental army under Lafayette. While Cornwallis 
marched northward, Greene began a campaign which ended 
in the recovery of the Carolinas and Georgia. British 
garrisons held only Charleston and Savannah. 

The Allies plan to Capture Cornwallis. — Meanwhile a 
French army of 5,500 soldiers, led by excellent officers and 
commanded by the Count de Rochambeau, had reached 
America. In the winter of 1 779-1 780 Lafayette had visited 
France and had persuaded the king to send this aid. Wash- 
ington wished the French army and the French fleet to unite 
with him in an attack on New York, but Rochambeau 
thought this too difficult. Cornwallis's appearance in Vir- 
ginia seemed to offer a better chance of success. Word was 



Cornwallis's Wandering Campaign 
at the South 



220 THE FRENCH HELPED THE COLONIES 

received from the Count de Grasse, commander of a large 
French fleet in the West Indies, that he would be on the 
coast of Virginia by September i, 1781. 

Cornwallis had fortified Yorktown, from which he expected 
to keep open communication by sea with New York. York- 
town would thus serve as a starting point for the conquest of 
Virginia. Washington and Rochambeau believed that with 
the help of a fleet Cornwallis could be captured before Clin- 
ton could send him aid. Washington left a small force to 
watch Clinton at New York, and with Rochambeau crossed 
New Jersey on the way to Virginia. De Grasse kept his 
promise and by August 29 was on the Virginia coast. A 
British fleet which sailed from New York was so crippled 
in battle with the French that it was obliged to return to 
New York for repairs. Before it had a chance to refit and 
sail to Virginia again, Washington and Rochambeau had 
forced Cornwallis to surrender On October 19, 1781, Corn- 
wallis and his army, numbering more than 7,000 men, became 
prisoners of war. 

End of the War. — The surrender of Cornwallis ended the 
Revolutionary War. The policy of Lord North and of the 
King was violently attacked in the House of Commons by 
General Conway and Charles James Fox, men who had 
always been friendly to America. They were aided by the 
younger William Pitt. In March, 1782, the majority of the 
House voted against continuance of the war. Lord North 
resigned, and a new ministry was formed in which Conway 
and Fox were leading members. They sent word to Franklin 
in Paris that they were ready to talk about terms of peace. 
They also introduced reforms by which in the future it would 
be more difficult for the King and his " Friends " to secure 
the election of their paid agents and thus control the action 
of parliament. 

An Independent Nation. — It was nearly two years before 



AN INDEPENDENT NATION 



221 




A GENERAL PEACE 

KEW-rORK, March 15, 1783 

L/TTE lafl Mgit, an E XP RE SSfrom Nrw-Jirjty, 
brought the follounng siaount 

T- H A T or, Stuidr, iafl, ,h, Twtrrry- Thi'tJ inftml. a Veffcl armtd u 

Pfebdclphla, .1. Tim, h'.r U.,1 Iron. Cad,», -.it, {i,//a.. »,. t« 
Ihf Ccitinrnti.1 LVif •/>. o>lormmg ihein, thai to Monday 111. 1 •tntielh 
Day of January. u.< P^LiMiNtmsi 10 

A GENERAL PEACE, 



terms of peace were agreed upon. The interests of France, 
Spain, and Holland, as well as of the American states, had 
to be provided for in the final agreements. Fortunately for 
Great Britain a fleet under Rodney defeated De Grasse in 
the West Indies in the spring of 1782, after which the French 
did not demand hard terms 
of Great Britain. 

According to the treaty of 
peace, signed in Paris in 
September, 1783, the inde- 
pendence of the United States 
was recognized by Great Brit- 
ain. The new nation was 
also to possess the region 
from the Alleghanies to the 
Mississippi River and from 
the Great Lakes to Florida, 
although the territory north 
of the Ohio had been included 
by the Quebec Act in the 
province of Quebec. The 
Americans were to retain the 
right to fish off the coasts of 
Nova Scotia and Newfound- 
land. 

Spain received Florida, which England had possessed for 
twenty years. France gained little but glory from the war, 
although she had added more than $300,000,000 to her 
national debt. But the French rejoiced that they had hum- 
bled their ancient enemy. Many of them rejoiced also at 
the success of their new friends, the Americans. Up to the 
Revolutionary War the colonists had regarded the French as 
relentless foes, who with their Indian allies might fall upon 
the defenceless frontier settlements. Henceforth they were 



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A Broadside Announcing Feace 
Reduced facsimile 



222 



THE FRENCH HELPED THE COLONIES 



remembered as a generous nation which had come to their 
aid when the colonial cause was darkest. 

Washington's Services. — Washington did one more great 
service to his country before he returned to Mount Vernon as 
a private citizen. Both soldiers and officers in the army were 
discontented because Congress had left them unpaid. Many 
men feared that they would refuse to go home now that the 
war was over, but would remain together and take by force 




Mount Vernon 
After an old print. As it appeared in Washington's time 

what they could not obtain peacefully from the bankrupt 
government. It was even whispered about that some of them 
wished to make Washington a king as their only hope of fair 
treatment. When Washington heard of this, he was much 
distressed. He used his influence with the officers and with 
the members of Congress to such good effect that a just agree- 
ment was made. Soldiers and officers went home quietly. 
Washington now resigned his commission in the army and 
returned to Mount Vernon, from which he had been absent 
more than eight years. He accepted no salary for his ser- 
vices, nor would he take any reward after the war was over, 
although his plantation had suffered from neglect. His 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 223 

place was secure in the hearts of his countrymen. With him 
Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and many others were gratefully 
remembered. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What causes had the colonists for discouragement in the winter of 
1777-1778? What news encouraged them? 

2. Why did the French join the colonial cause? In what different ways 
did the French aid the colonies? Why was the coming of Lafayette and 
Steuben particularly fortunate for Washington? 

3. In what way was the French alliance of the greatest value to the colo- 
nies? What change did the British make in the conduct of the war because 
of the alliance? 

4. What enemies did England make in the course of the Revolution? Why 
did the Spaniards and Dutch also go to war with England? How did Eng- 
land's other wars affect the colonial cause? 

5. Did the colonies have a navy? What were the privateers doing to help 
the colonial cause? 

6. Tell the story of John Paul Jones's battle with the Serapis. 

7. Where did Clinton try to carry on the war after 1778? What success 
did he have? Why did he fail to conquer completely the southern colonies? 
What did General Greene accomplish? 

8. What further aid did France give the colonies in 1780? What plan did 
Washington and Rochambeau form? 

9. Describe the 'capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown. What change in 
the English government now occurred? What were the new ministers ready 
to do? 

10. Why did it take nearly two years after the battle of Yorktown to 
arrange the terms of peace? 

11. What did Spain and France gain from their war with England? 

12. What was Washington's service to his country just before retiring from 
the Revolutionary army? 

EXERCISES 

1. Write an account of the help that the French gave the United States 
during the Revolution. 

2. Make a list of the gains besides independence secured by the United 
States in the treaty of peace. 

Important Dates: 

1778. French alliance. 

1781. October. Capture of Yorktown. 

1783. Treaty of Peace. 



224 THE FRENCH HELPED THE COLONIES 



REVIEW OF THE REVOLUTION 

1754-63. The French and Indian War. Frontiersmen seeking the western 
lands encroached on territory claimed by the French. The French 
lost not only the lands in dispute, but also their other American 
colonies. 

1763-65. England (1) continued her old policy of interfering with the free- 
dom of the trade of the colonies, enforcing near the close of the 
French War and afterward laws which had never before been en- 
forced in the colonies, (2) attempted to maintain a regular army in 
the colonies, and (3) passed laws like the Stamp Act to raise money 
for the support of the army. 

1765-75. The colonists resisted the British policy by refusing to trade with 
England, by destroying stamps, burning ships sent to enforce the 
trade laws, and by other means, like throwing the tea overboard. 

1768. England punished the colonies by increasing the regular army, and in 
1774 by closing the port of Boston and taking away some of Mas- 
sachusetts^ powers of self-government. 

1774. The colonists at the Continental Congress united in resisting such acts, 

formed a general agreement not to trade with England, and prepared 
for defense if war came. 

1775. The battles of Lexington and Concord began the war of the Revolution. 
1776.' The British evacuated Boston and seized New York City. Congress set 

forth a Declaration of Independence and the colonies began making 
permanent state governments. 

1777. The colonial forces captured Burgoyne's army, and the British took 

Philadelphia. During the war the colonies created new industries 
and spread westward. 

1778. George Rogers Clark conquered the Northwest. The French formed an 

alliance with the colonies. 

1779. Spain joined France in the war. 

1780. England also went to war with Holland. Clinton carried the Ameri- 

can war into the southern colonies. 
A French army landed in America, under Count de Rochambeau, 
to help Washington. 

1781. The United Colonies adopted a constitution, the Articles of Confedera- 

tion. Cornwallis was captured by the combined work of Washing- 
ton, Rochambeau, and the French fleet. 
1783. A treaty of peace was agreed to. Thirteen English colonies finally 
became both united and independent. 



CHAPTER XX 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC 

Our Country in 1783. — The United States of 1783 was in 
area only about one-fourth as large as it is to-day. More 
than half lay west of the Appalachian Mountains. This part, 
save for a few settlements, was uninhabited by white men. 
Even the region 




east of the moun- 
tains was thinly 
settled. The 
greater part of the 
population lived 
near the coast and 
in the richer farm- 
ing valleys. It is 
impossible to say 
exactly how many 
inhabitants the 
country had, for 
no census had ever 
been taken. But probably about 3,250,000 persons lived in 
the United States, not counting 100,000 or 200,000 Indians. 
About one-fifth of the people were negro slaves. 

The present state of Pennsylvania has more than twice as 
many people as the whole United States had in 1783; New 
York City has one and one-half times as many. The United 
States was not only the youngest but also one of the smallest 
nations in the world. Great Britain, including Ireland, num- 
bered nearly four times as many inhabitants; Spain more 
than three times; and France eight times. 



Our Country in 1783 

Black dots show the settled regions in the United 
States; circles show the regions of Canada in settlement; 
crosses show the Spanish settlements; the white shows the 
unoccupied territory 



226 DIFFICULTIES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC 

North American Neighbors. — The neighbors of the United 
States in North America were few. Small English settle- 
ments existed in Nova Scotia. Possibly 60,000 French people 
lived in the colony of Quebec. About 40,000 loyalists, who 
fled from the United States during the Revolution, formed 
the main part of the population in two new British provinces 
of New Brunswick and Upper Canada. 1 The people of the 
United States looked upon these people as living in the 
"frozen north." 




Plan of a Spanish Mission Settlement 

Spain had five colonies or provinces within what is now 
the United States. These colonies were Florida and Loui- 
siana on the south and west, some small mission settlements 
in Texas and New Mexico forming the out-posts of Mexico, 
and a new colony, California, in the far west. In 1769 a 
party of Spanish missionaries and soldiers had entered Cali- 
fornia and established an Indian mission at San Diego. 
Seven years later they established a mission which was the 
beginning of San Francisco, the great city of the Golden 
Gate. Some pushed on into the interior, and established 
other missions, placing them in fertile valleys where Indian 
tribes might be reached. The good monk, Junipero Serra, 
was at the head of the movement. He gloried even in his 

1 In 1 791 Canada was divided into Upper and Lower Canada, which were 
permitted to have provincial assemblies. 



NORTH AMERICAN NEIGHBORS 



227 



sufferings as he tramped across terrible deserts or visited 
hostile Indians. 

The news that a mission had been founded was received 
in Mexico with rejoicing and the ringing of bells. Proclama- 
tions of the government carried the story to the humblest 
hamlet and 
even to far- 
away Spain. 
The Califor- 
nia missions, 
at first simple 
places of wor- 
ship and resi- 
dence for 
priests and 
their helpers, 
became in a 
short time 
thriving col- 
onies. Beau- 
tiful buildings were erected, ruins of which may still be 
seen in many places throughout California. Indians were 
persuaded to abandon their wandering life and settle on the 
mission farms, or work in the mission kitchens or workshops. 
Each mission was an Indian colony with a few Spanish mis- 
sionaries and army officers. 

Soldiers stationed near the missions were almost the only 
other Spaniards. There were, however, two or three towns 
for ordinary settlers. Los Angeles was begun in 1781. The 
total Spanish population in California was probably less 
than a tenth of the Indian population living at the mis- 
sions. The sturdy peasants and skilled laborers of Spain 
did not go there any more than they did to Mexico or the 
West Indies or any other Spanish colony in the New World. 




A California Mission 
San Luis Rey 



228 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE NFW REPUBLIC 




■>.^ 



=■ ^&A ^Se : - ff -5: _"^> « ' -%~^T- •* V J 

To (he 



Except along the borders of Florida the settlements of the 
new republic were separated from those of its neighbors by 
vast stretches of unoccupied land. The Spaniards advancing 
into the Southwest and the people of the states moving into 
the Ohio Valley would not come into conflict for many years. 
In reality, however, they were entered upon a new race, this 

time for the possession of 
the Great West. 
Danger from Disunion. 
In 1783 the danger to 
the people of the stales 
came from their lack of 
union rather than from the 
rivalry of foreign settle- 
ments. As yet they had 
little to do with one an- 
other. The roads were few, 
rudely made, without much 
attempt at grading. The 
vessels which plied from 
port to port sailed on no 
regular schedule. Travelers 
ordinarily went on horse- 
back or by stage coach. 
Several stage-coaches made the journey each week between 
Boston and New York, New York and Philadelphia, Phil- 
adelphia and Baltimore, and a few smaller places. The 
coach was really a stage-wagon, something like the covered 
light wagons in common use to-day. It often took three days, 
starting at three o'clock in the morning and traveling until 
ten at night, to go from Philadelphia to New York, or six 
days from New York to Boston. No bridges spanned the 
large rivers, for the bridge-makers or carpenters of that time 
had not learned how to build long spans. If a river was 



THE FLYING MACHINE, kept Dy 
John Mercereau, at the New Blazing-Star- Feny, 
near New. York, fets off from Powles Hook every Mon- 
day, Wednefday, and Friday Mornings, for Philadelphia, 
and performs the Journey in a Day and a Half, for the 
Summer Scafon, till the tftof November ; from that Time 
to go twice a Week till the firfl of May, when they 
again perform it three Times a Week. When the Stages 
go only twice aWeek, they fet off Mondays and Thurf- 
days. The Waggons in Philadelphia fet out from the 
Sign of the George, in Second. flreet, the fame Morning. 
The Paffengers are defired to crofs the Ferry the Evening 
before, as the Stages mull fet off early the next Moming. 
The Price foreach PafTenger is T-wenty Shillings, F*roc. and 
Goods as ufual. Paffengers going Part of the Way to pay 
in Proportion. 

As the Proprietor has made fuch Improvements upon 
the Machines, one of which is in Imitation of a Coach, 
he hopes to merit the Favour of the Publick. 

JOHN MERCEREAU. 

MCHYirk Gaictte 1JJI 

Stage-Coach Announcement 



DANGER FROM DISUNION 



229 



shallow it could be forded; if wide and deep, the coach could 
be carried across on a ferry boat. Even short journeys were 
full of excitement, hardship, and danger. 

The ordinary man seldom traveled beyond the boundaries 
of his county. The New Englander only on the rarest occa- 
sions traveled south of the Potomac, or the Southerner to 
the North. Dress, social customs, and even uses of words 
and phrases varied in different states. Besides, the Dutch 
in New York, the Germans in Pennsylvania, and the French 
in Detroit and the Illinois country still kept the language and 
ways of their fathers in the 
Old World. 

Why the People knew so 
Little of One Another. — 
The newspapers were more 
enterprising than they had 
been before the war, but 
they were not distributed 
through the post - offices, 
and were therefore hard to 
obtain. The post-offices 
handled only letters. Post- 
riders carried the little mail 
there was in saddle-bags attached to the saddles. A pair of 
saddle-bags was enough to carry the mail on any trip be- 
tween New York and Philadelphia or Boston and New 
York. 

People living in small towns seldom received mail oftener 
than once a week. It was harder and much more expensive 
to send a letter to many a backwoods or frontier town than 
it is to-day to send it into the interior of China. The post- 
riders usually left the mail at the town inns. 

Would the Republic endure? — Many persons wondered 
how long a republic, the parts of which were so loosely con- 




Post-Rideb <>!•• the Olden Times 



230 DIFFICULTIES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC 

nected with one another, would hold together. It was really 
thirteen republics, for the Continental Congress had little 
power, and this Congress was the only central authority. A 
shrewd Frenchman called the United States "a giant with- 
out bones." He probably meant that the republic had no 
king or nobles to manage its affairs. English people thought 
that the Americans would repent of their separation and 
return to their allegiance to George III. 

Many Americans still thought independence a mistake. 
They believed that it meant thirteen small, jealous, quarrel- 
ing republics, helpless before the first enemy who should 
attack them. Some talked about dividing the United States 
into three groups, one made up of the New England states, 
another of the middle states from New York to Maryland, 
and a third of the southern states. A few wished to have 
a king, and when Washington spurned the idea that he 
should become king, they suggested a son of George III or 
of a brother of Frederick the Great. The majority, however, 
had faith in their experiment with a republican form of 
government and a union of all the states. 

What Congress accomplished. — The Congress of the 
Confederation accomplished some things of great value, in 
spite of the fact that it possessed little authority. With 
the aid of Washington it carried the war to a successful end- 
ing. Its agents made an advantageous peace with Great 
Britain. When the war, which had furnished the strongest 
reasons for union, was over, Congress kept the states together 
until they became accustomed to united action. What in 
1 781 seemed merely a "league of friendship" began to grow 
into a deep and lasting union for the common good. 

A New System of Money. — Even after the close of the 
war seven states issued paper money. Like the earlier issues 
most of this was never redeemed in coin. Paper money was 
the cause of many disputes about the payment of debts. 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 



231 




Copper Cent Coined in 1783 



Still there was another difficulty. The people used foreign 
silver and gold coins in ordinary trade, for Congress coined no 
money. These foreign coins — crowns, doubloons, guineas, 
Johanneses, moidores, 
pistoles, shillings, and 
Spanish dollars — often 
varied in value. Many 
were counterfeited or 
had their edges clipped. 
Washington said it 
would soon be neces- 
sary to carry about scales in order to weigh such coins. 

Although Congress was unable to remedy these evils, it 
provided a system of money in which all coins could be given 
a place or value. The system might be used in planning for 
new coins when a mint was established. It was called the 
decimal system because the cent, the second measure of value, 
was ten times the mill, which was the first; while the dime was 
ten times the cent; and the dollar was ten times the dime. 

The Northwest Territory. — Congress invented a way of 
managing its western lands which helped to unite the states. 
George Rogers Clark had conquered the lands northwest of 
the Ohio in 1778. The United States had been allowed to 
retain these in the treaty of peace with Great Britain. But 
several old states, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, and 
Massachusetts, laid claim to the region. Maryland refused 
to join in any union if the others were to keep great tracts 
of western lands. Finally the states that claimed western 
lands gave up most of them. 1 These lands became the com- 
mon territory of all, the first territory of the United States. 

1 Connecticut kept back or reserved a tract 120 miles long, lying west of 
Pennsylvania and south of Lake Erie, called the Western Reserve. In time 
Connecticut gave part of this land to its citizens who had suffered from British 
raids during the Revolution and sold part to a land company, using the money 
for the benefit of public schools. Virginia also retained, besides the Kentucky 



232 DIFFICULTIES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC 

Surveying Lands in the "Northwest." — In 1785 Congress 
adopted a plan of surveying the western lands. Land in the 
old colonies had been loosely and carelessly surveyed. The 
frontier settlers often made their own boundaries by toma- 
hawk marks on the trees. This led to innumerable disputes 
between farmers. It left the lines between farms crooked 
and made many strange-shaped pieces of land which nobody 
wanted. The new way was to survey the western territory 
into squares six miles on a side, called townships, and to 
divide these into smaller squares called sections, one mile on 
a side. These were again divided into smaller squares called 
"quarters," 160 acres in extent. In this plan four quarters 
formed a section, and thirty-six sections a township. Each 
section and township was numbered so that any piece of 
land could be readily located. The land was to be sold at 
$1 an acre. 1 Congress promised the settlers to give the six- 
teenth section in every township for the support of public 
schools. 

The Ordinance of 1787. — In 1787, Congress provided a 
way of governing the Northwest Territory. Many Revolu- 
tionary soldiers wished to locate within it the lands which 
Congress had promised them. Several officers belonged to 
the Ohio Company, which was formed to buy land of Con- 
gress and sell it to settlers. Both wished a stable govern- 
ment in the territory, capable of protecting the property of 
the settlers and of deciding disputes between them. Such a 
government was provided by a law called the Ordinance of 
1787. Congress was to appoint a governor and judges to 
rule until the territory numbered 5,000 inhabitants. The 
territory was then to have an assembly of its own. As soon 
as any part of the territory had 60,000 people or more, it was 

region, some lands north of the Ohio River, sometimes called the Virginia 
Military Reserve, for its citizens who had served as soldiers in the Revolution. 
x In 1796 the price was raised to $2. 



BEGINNINGS OF OHIO 233 

to become a state equal in all respects to the older states. 
The new state would also become a part of the union. Con- 
gress promised that the inhabitants should always have free- 
dom of religion, right of trial by jury, and free republican 
state governments. It also declared that no laborers should 
be held as slaves. By the survey act of 1785 and the Ordi- 
nance of 1787 Congress adopted the policy of encouraging free 
laborers, promising them cheap land and political equality. 





The Settlement at the "Point" at Marietta in 1790 

Beginnings of Ohio. — The Ohio Company immediately 
took advantage of the new plan. It purchased from Con- 
gress several hundred thousand acres in the southeastern 
part of the present state of Ohio. In the spring of 1788 
General Rufus Putnam and a band of New Englanders 
reached the spot where the Muskingum River flows into 
the Ohio River. By the middle of summer many acres of 
growing corn, several log huts, and a block-house marked 
the progress of the new settlement. Out of gratitude to 
the French for aid during the war, the settlers named the 
village Marietta, a shortened form of Marie Antoinette, 
Queen of France. Another company purchased lands farther 
down the Ohio, including the site of Cincinnati. 

Emigration to the West. — The settlements south of the 
Ohio River, in the present state of Kentucky, were growing 




An Emigrant's Flatboat 



234 DIFFICULTIES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC 

rapidly. Twelve thousand persons entered the region in a 
single year. Louisville soon became a thriving village. Emi- 
grants to the Ohio country, whether north or south of the river, 

crossed the moun- 
tains in covered 
wagons, sleeping in 
these at night and 
cooking their food 
by the roadside. 
The route led to 
Pittsburgh, if they 
were from New 
England or the 
middle states, and to Wheeling, if from Maryland or Virginia. 
At the bank of the Ohio they obtained natboats, large enough 
to carry wagons, livestock, and household stuff. The current 
of the river carried them on at the rate of four or five miles 
an hour. When the place was reached to which the settlers 
were going, they used the planks of the boat for buildings. 

Distress in the States. — One reason why so many people 
moved to the Ohio country was the distress in the states. 
A sudden change from war to peace is often as ruinous to 
business as a change from peace to war. Industries which 
profited by the war lost the market for their goods. Chan- 
nels of trade which the war opened were closed. Even rich 
men could not obtain money enough to pay their ordinary 
debts. In 1788 Washington had to put off the tax collector 
because a man who owed him could not pay. Common 
debtors came to look upon judges as their enemies, since it 
was the decisions of judges which compelled them to pay or 
go to jail. In certain Massachusetts towns mobs hindered 
meetings of the courts. Finally the discontented, including 
many debtors from the western part of the state, assembled 
under the leadership of Captain Daniel Shays and attempted 



TROUBLE FROM DEBTS 235 

to capture the arsenal at Springfield. The rioters were soon 
dispersed. The Rhode Island legislature tried to help 
debtors by issuing great quantities of paper money and com- 
pelling creditors to accept the worthless bills. It also threat- 
ened storekeepers with loss of political rights if they did not 
sell their goods at low prices fixed in paper money. 

Trade after the War. — The merchants and ship owners, 
who had been growing rich on the trade with France and Spain 
during the later years of the war, were distressed to discover 
that at its close they could no longer trade with the French 
or Spanish West Indies. The British West Indies were also 
closed, because the Americans were now foreigners. The 
French in the commercial treaty of 1778 had promised the 
Americans only as good treatment as that granted to any 
other foreigners. While the war lasted the French govern- 
ment gave special privileges to American ships in order to 
injure the English, but withdrew these privileges in 1783. 
Fortunately for the American merchants the French planters 
cried out that they were the ones principally hurt, for they 
could no longer get cheap food for their plantation hands. By 
1785, therefore, the French government reopened the trade 
in a few products. The English planters obtained similar 
privileges of trade with the United States, so that by 1786 
the West Indian trade was again on the road to prosperity. 

The stopping of the West Indian trade for two or three years 
made it hard for the American merchants to pay for what 
they bought in Europe and especially in England. They had 
few products except tobacco and rice which they could offer 
in exchange. The English government added to the diffi- 
culty by insisting that ships could bring no goods except those 
of the state where the ship was owned. A New Englander, 
therefore, could not carry South Carolina rice or Virginia 
tobacco to England. The aim, of course, was to give this 
business to English ships. 



236 DIFFICULTIES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC 

Congress and Trade. — Another difficulty grew out of the 
fact that Congress did not have the right to make rules of 
trade for all the states. Each state had its own set of laws 
and levied such taxes as it pleased on articles which its mer- 
chants bought. States sometimes tried to take vengeance 
on England because the English government treated American 
merchants badly. States also taxed articles brought in from 
other states. New Jersey was so angry at the taxes New 
York levied on articles sent to New York that the state tried 
to levy a tax of £30 a month on a little land at Sandy Hook 
which the New Yorkers had bought for a light-house. 

The Mississippi Question. — Still greater dangers arose 
over the navigation of the Mississippi. The lower part of the 
river for 200 miles flowed through Spanish territory. The 
Americans, like the English from 1763 to the Revolution- 
ary War, claimed the right to sail down the Mississippi and 
out into the Gulf of Mexico without interference from the 
Spaniards. But the Spaniards disputed the claim. They 
wanted to check the growth of the western settlements. One 
way to accomplish this was by cutting off the only outlet for 
trade. They therefore offered valuable privileges of trade 
with Spain and the Spanish West Indies, if the United States 
would give up the claim to the use of the lower Mississippi. 
Some men in Congress were ready to obtain trade privileges 
at this price. When the settlers in Kentucky and on the Ten- 
nessee heard of it, they threatened to secede if it were done. 

Need of a Stronger Union. — It had already become clear 
that the states needed a stronger government if they were 
to deal successfully with foreign nations. By 1787 even so 
friendly a government as France thought the republic was 
falling to pieces. The British would not withdraw their 
garrisons from the northern frontier posts. 1 

1 British garrisons still held Detroit, Mackinac, Erie, Niagara, and Oswego, 
though these posts now belonged to the United States. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 237 

Congress was unable to collect money enough to pay the 
ordinary expenses of the government. It was obliged to ask 
the states to send money for such purposes. In 1782 and 
1783 Congress asked for $10,000,000, but received less than 
$1,500,000. Delaware, Georgia, and North Carolina paid noth- 
ing, while New Hampshire paid $3,000 instead of $450,000. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Describe the United States in 1783. What neighbors had it? 

2. Why did the Spanish colonies grow slowly? Who made up the inhab- 
itants of these? 

3. Upon what new race were the English and Spanish people starting as 
rivals ? Why was the outcome of the race a long way off? 

4. Why was there danger that the new republic would break up? Why 
did the people of the United States know so little of one another? 

5. What did Congress accomplish? What kind of money was used? De- 
scribe the system of money adopted. 

6. What arrangement did Congress and the states make regarding the west- 
ern land claims? What plan did Congress adopt for the survey of these lands? 
What plan for the government of the Northwest Territory? 

7. What western settlements were formed? How did the emigrants reach 
the western colonies? Why did people leave the old settlements for the West? 

8. How did the coming of peace after the Revolution affect the trade of the 
colonies? How did the people finally secure a profitable foreign trade? 

9. Why was a stronger union needed? 

EXERCISES 

1. On an outline map of the present United States show the parts (1) 
which were already inhabited in 1783, (2) those which belonged to the United 
States, but were vacant, and (3) those held by foreign colonies. 

2. Make two lists, one of the good things that the Congress of the Con- 
federation accomplished between 1781 and 1789, and another of the things that 
it should have done but could not for want of power. 

3. Describe the present English money system. Would it have been better 
if the United States had kept the money system of the mother country? 

4. Review the story of the Virginia Company's "colony at Jamestown and 
compare it with that of the Ohio Company's colony at Marietta. 

Important Date: 

1787. The adoption of the Northwest Ordinance. 



CHAPTER XXI 

STARTING THE NEW GOVERNMENT 

The Philadelphia Convention. — Disputes about trade, 
especially in Chesapeake Bay and along the Potomac River, 
finally convinced thoughtful men that a government strong 
enough to regulate all such matters was necessary. At- 
tempts to settle by conference questions of trade between 
neighboring states like Virginia and Maryland came to 
nothing. A convention of delegates from all the states was 
then called. It met in Philadelphia in May, 1787. 

James Madison, one of the youngest men at the conven- 
tion, had carefully prepared himself beforehand to take a 
leading part in its work. He had so much to do with making 
the new government that he is often called the "Father of 
the Constitution." Many other notable men attended the 
Philadelphia convention. Among them were George Wash- 
ington of Virginia, Benjamin Franklin and James Wilson of 
Pennsylvania, and Alexander Hamilton of New York. Some 
great leaders of the day were occupied with other work and 
could not take part in the convention. John Jay had 
charge of foreign affairs and chose to stay at his post. John 
Adams was minister of the United States to England, Thomas 
Jefferson to France. Several well-known men, like Samuel 
Adams and Patrick Henry, were opposed to such a change in 
the government, and were not in the convention. 

Washington was chosen president of the convention. The 
leaders made no attempt to patch the weak spots in the gov- 
ernment of the Confederation. From the beginning they were 



A NEW CONSTITUTION 



2 39 




resolved to propose to the people a form of government alto- 
gether new. One obstacle to success was the fact that no two 
of the thirteen states were of the same size, and yet each 
believed itself as important as any of the rest. The small 
states were afraid to be yoked 
with the large states, for fear 
the latter would outvote and 
oppress them. A thousand 
imaginary dangers troubled 
the timid. At one time the 
Delaware delegates threat- 
ened to leave the convention. 
A majority of the New York |> 
delegates did leave in disgust 
at the decisions which the 
convention made. 

A New Constitution. — The 
frame of government which 
the delegates completed, after working from May until well 
into September, differed widely from that which the states 
had accepted in the Articles of Confederation. In the first 
place, an official called a President was placed at the head 
of the administration of affairs. Secondly, the legislature, 
or Congress, was divided into a Senate and a House of 
Representatives. In the third place, a Supreme Court was 
provided. The powers granted to each of these branches of 
the government showed that the leaders of the convention 
wanted to guard against hasty decisions. For this reason 
they made the assent of two bodies necessary in drawing up 
laws. They also gave the President the right to veto acts of 
Congress, which could not then become laws unless both 
Houses passed them again by a majority of two-thirds. 
Furthermore, they wished to protect the people against the 
possibility that in times of excitement both President and 



James Madison 

After the Gilbert Stuart portrait, 

Bowdoin College 



240 STARTING THE NEW GOVERNMENT 

Congress might adopt measures which would deprive a part 
of the people of their rights, especially of their rights of 
property. They had in mind such laws as had been passed 
in Rhode Island about paper money. This fear led the con- 
vention to give to a Supreme Court the power to guard these 
rights by declaring unconstitutional acts of Congress which 
violated them. 

An equally great change was made in the powers of the cen- 
tral government. To it were granted not only the right to levy 
taxes enough to pay its expenses, but to regulate, without in- 
terference from the state legislatures, such matters as trade. 
Moreover, the states were forbidden to issue paper money. 

The delegates thought it better to give the choice of a Pres- 
ident to a selected body of men, called an Electoral College, 
rather than provide that the President should be chosen 
directly by the people. They also decided that senators 
should be chosen by the legislatures of the states. Members 
of the House of Representatives were the only officers to be 
chosen directly by the people. 

The Compromises of the Constitution. — It was very diffi- 
cult to come to an agreement about the manner of making 
up the two Houses of Congress. Men from the larger states 
like Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, thought that 
their states should have more representatives than small states. 
But the small states did not wish to be ruled by their larger 
neighbors. A New Jersey delegate said that he would not 
submit the welfare of his state with five votes to a Congress 
in which Virginia had sixteen. Wilson of Pennsylvania just 
as emphatically called it absurd to give New Jersey with a 
population of 175,000 as many votes as Pennsylvania, which 
had more than twice as many people, or Delaware with less 
than 60,000 as many as Virginia, which had a population 
ten times as great. Nearly five weeks passed before they 
settled the question. 



THE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED 



241 



Franklin showed them a way out. "When," he said, "a 
broad table is to be made, and the edges of the planks do not 
fit, the artist takes a little from both, and makes a good joint. 
In like manner here both sides must part with some of their 
demands." According to the plan finally adopted each state, 
large or small, should have two senators, while its number 
of representatives 
depended upon 
the size of its pop- 
ulation. Massa- 
chusetts, for ex- 
ample, was grant- 
ed eight members 
in the House of 
Represent atives , 
Virginia ten, Del- 
aware one, and 
Maryland six. 

Many similar 
bargains were 
made in the 
course of the de- 
bates. There was, 
as one writer says, 
a "whole bundle" of compromises agreed to while making 
the Constitution. Franklin wanted to have a Congress of 
one House and to fix the term of President at seven years, 
denying him a second term. These proposals and many 
others were voted down. 

The States accept the Work of the Convention. — The 
people of the states accepted the work of the convention, 
though not without weeks of discussion and opposition. 
Most of the small states thought the Constitution favorable 
to their interests. Delaware, New Jersey, and Georgia rati- 




Congress Hall, Philadelphia 
National Capitol in 1 790-1 800 



242 STARTING THE NEW GOVERNMENT 

fied it with enthusiasm. Ratification came only after a long, 
hard fight in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York. Rhode 
Island and North Carolina at first refused to join the other 
states. Eleven states accepted the new Constitution, and 
went to work "to form a more perfect union." 1 

George Washington, First President, 1789-97. — The 
Congress of the Confederation appointed March 4, 1789, for 
beginning the new government, and New York as the tem- 
porary capital. Electors, chosen in five 2 of the states by the 
legislatures, and in the others by the people, voted unani- 
mously for Washington as the first President. They chose 
John Adams as Vice-President. It was long after March 4 
before Congress was organized and Washington was officially 
notified of his election. On April 30 he took the oath of 
office and read his inaugural address to the two Houses of 
Congress assembled in Federal Hall. It was a day of great 
rejoicing. In the morning crowds attended services in the 
churches to pray for the welfare of the new government and 
the safety of the President. Bonfires and illuminations at 
night ended the celebration. 

Washington's Helpers. — Washington's first task was to 
select his advisers. Congress provided for a Secretary of 
State to conduct foreign correspondence, a Secretary of the 
Treasury to manage money matters, and a Secretary of War 
to direct the army of only 600 men. The offices of Attorney- 
General to advise the President on matters of law and Post- 
master-General to care for the small postal business of the 
country were created. Neither of these was looked upon 
as an important department like the other three. Washington 
appointed Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, Alexander 

1 The provision in the Constitution that it should go into effect as soon as 
nine states agreed to it was revolutionary, because according to the Articles 
of Confederation any change in the government required the consent of all the 
states. 

2 Rhode Island, North Carolina, and New York did not choose electors. 



WASHINGTON THE FIRST PRESIDENT 



243 




Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury, and Henry Knox Secre- 
tary of War. John Jay was made Chief- Justice of the new- 
Supreme Court. 

Formation of the Cabinet. — Each secretary had his own 
work to do. In England such 
officers together formed a "Cab- 
inet" or special body of advisers 
to the king, recommending meas- 
ures of government and conduct- 
ing discussions in parliament. 
The American Constitution said 
nothing about a Cabinet. Wash- 
ington early adopted a part of 
the English practice and asked 
the heads of departments to 
meet together and to advise 
with him upon important mat- 
ters. The custom of holding 
Cabinet meetings with the President has been continued by 
Washington's successors. In this way, without a provision 
in the law or the Constitution, the President's Cabinet 
came into existence. 1 

Providing Money for National Affairs. — The most impor- 
tant matter at the outset was providing money to pay the 
national debt and the ordinary expenses of government. It 
had been necessary to borrow money in Holland to pay the 
interest on the French loans. Adams had also been obliged 
to borrow money there to start the new government. Con- 
gress began raising money almost at once by taxing articles 
imported into the United States from other countries. Such 
taxes, called tariffs or import duties, remained the chief 
source of income for the federal government. Duties were 



George Washington 
After the portrait by Stuart 



1 Four men made up Washington's Cabinet — the three secretaries — State, 
Treasury, and War — and the Attorney-General. 



244 STARTING THE NEW GOVERNMENT 

raised or lowered as more or less money was needed. From 
the first, manufacturers urged Congress to lay import duties 
on articles which were also made in the United States. This 
would give the American makers an advantage or "protec- 
tion," as it was called. The duties in the first tariff act 
were low, that is, only slightly protective. 

The National and State Debts. — Alexander Hamilton, 
as Secretary of the Treasury, was called upon to prepare a 
plan for paying off the great war debt. He proposed that 
Congress should pay not only the money borrowed by the 
government from the French, the Dutch, and from Ameri- 
can citizens, but even that borrowed by the states in their 
own defense. This meant that the United States would pay 
about $75,000,000, a huge sum for those days. 

There was not much difference of opinion about paying 
back the money which the United States had borrowed, but 
many objected to paying the debts of the states. Some 
states like Virginia had already paid a part of their debt. 
They objected to a plan by which their citizens would have 
to aid other states. Besides, some men preferred that the 
states, rather than the United States, should receive the credit 
which would come from honorable payment of the Revolu- 
tionary debts. 

Another Compromise. — It happened that Congress had 
to select a place for a permanent capital. The members of 
Congress from the southern states wanted this to be located 
on the Potomac. The members from Pennsylvania wanted 
it at Philadelphia. Other members of Congress did not care 
where the capital should be located, but were anxious to carry 
through Hamilton's plan of paying the state debts. Hamilton 
and Jefferson, representing different sides, struck a bargain. 
Hamilton agreed to persuade several northern Congressmen 
to vote to locate the capital for ten years at Philadelphia and 
then permanently on the Potomac River; Jefferson, in turn, 



TAXES AND REVENUE 



245 




promised to find several southern members to support Hamil- 
ton's plan about state debts. The bargain was carried out. 

Internal Revenue Taxes. — Hamilton persuaded Congress 
to tax whiskey manufactured in the United States. This 
was called an internal revenue or excise tax. The govern- 
ment needed the money, and 
Hamilton thought it well to ac- 
custom the people to the idea 
of taxes collected in different 
parts of the country. He be- 
lieved that a government, like 
a man, grows strong by exercis- 
ing every power. 

The levy of this tax soon gave 
the government an opportunity 
to show whether it was strong. 
Many persons in western Penn- 
sylvania owned small distilleries 
and made whiskey out of their 
surplus rye, corn, and wheat. When the Spaniards closed 
the Mississippi, the western settlers could no longer send 
their grain to market by water. It could be sent across the 
mountains only at great expense unless distilled into whis- 
key. They were angry at the law placing a tax on their 
chief product and drove away the collectors. When the 
governor of Pennsylvania would not put down the disorder, 
Washington sent to the seat of trouble an army made up of 
militia from the neighboring states. The "Whiskey Rebel- 
lion" ended without actual fighting, and resistance to the 
collectors ceased. 

A Mint and a National Bank. — By Hamilton's advice a 
mint was established, and the coinage of silver and gold 
begun. His plan to create a Bank of the United States met 
with more opposition. England had had such a bank for a 



Alexander Hamilton 
After Trumbull's portrait, Metro- 
politan Museum, New York 



246 



STARTING THE NEW GOVERNMENT 




^ 




;:; ' j? 


in; b . - 

!iV gvj B 

fe; it; s 


IB - 




1 1 


EXJLi 



century. It had been of great use in several ways, but 
chiefly in helping the government when it needed to 
borrow large amounts of money. In Holland the Bank 
of Amsterdam had been equally useful. When Hamilton 
proposed a similar bank for the United States, many 

opposed the scheme 
for fear that it 
would be so power- 
ful that it would 
control all business. 
Congress, however, 
finally authorized 
the Bank, to do 
business for twenty 
years, and subscrib- 
ed one-fifth of the 
money that was 
required for its or- 
ganization. 

Rival Leaders in Washington's Cabinet. — In carrying out 
Hamilton's plans Congress made use of powers not given 
to it expressly in the Constitution. Hamilton argued that 
Congress should provide for the general welfare of the coun- 
try. Jefferson opposed Hamilton's plans in the Cabinet 
meetings and outside. Washington sympathized rather more 
with Hamilton, but preferred not to take sides with either. 
The fact was that the two great leaders held very different 
views of government. Hamilton was bent on securing a 
strong government which could maintain order at all times. 
He distrusted the ability of the masses of the people to take 
an intelligent part in government, and accordingly believed 
that the government should be carried on by men of prop- 
erty and education. Jefferson, on the other hand, sincerely 
believing that all men are equal, was determined that the few 



The Bank of the United States, 
Philadelphia 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 



247 



should not rule the many. He thought that all the people 
would in the end prove wiser than any part of them, 
however well-meaning and intelligent. Under the influence 
of Jefferson and Hamilton the citizens of the new republic 
were soon grouped in two political parties. Hamilton's 
followers were com- 
monly called Fed- 
eralists, because of 
their belief in a 
strong federal or 
national govern- 
ment. The Jeffer- 
sonians were called 
Democrats or Re- 
publicans because 
of their faith in the 
people. The Dem- 
ocrats naturally 
looked to the states 
rather than the Un- 
ited States as the 
governments which 
must be relied upon. They were sure that Hamilton 
aimed at changing the government into a monarchy, and 
even went so far as to attack Washington bitterly for 
leaning toward Hamilton's ideas on government. 

The New Government and the Ohio Country. — The 
advantages of a strong government, such as Washington and 
his advisers were organizing, soon became apparent in another 
way. Hardly had Marietta been founded before a new 
Indian war broke out, in which the governor of the North- 
west Territory was badly defeated. The new government 
raised another and better army and supplied it with neces- 
sary war supplies. Washington gave the command to Gen- 




The Northwest Territory after Wayne's 
Victory 

The part given up by the Indians is shaded; that kept 
by the Indians is white 



248 



STARTING THE NEW GOVERNMENT 



eral Anthony Wayne, whom his soldiers liked to call "Mad 
Anthony" for his bravery, but whom the Indians called the 
"chief that never sleeps" for his ceaseless energy. Wayne 
defeated the Indians decisively and compelled them to give 
up nearly all of what is now the state of Ohio. After this 
it was not so dangerous to emigrate to the West, and the 
number of settlers increased rapidly. 




Exterior Interior 

A Pioneer Home in Kentucky 

By 1800 four hundred thousand people lived west of the 
mountains. So many lived in Kentucky that in 1792 it 
was admitted to the union of states on the same terms as the 
original thirteen. Four years later, in 1796, Tennessee was 
made the sixteenth state. 1 Ohio was added in 1803, and the 
remainder of the Northwest Territory was soon divided into 
Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois Territories. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What disputes finally convinced men that a stronger government was 
needed? Who were the leaders in calling the convention at Philadelphia? 

2. What great obstacle was there to the success of the convention? How 
long did the delegates work in framing the new government? 

3. What three branches of government did the new Constitution provide? 
Why did the leaders arrange the powers of these branches as they did? What 
new powers, not possessed by Congress under the Articles of Confederation, 
were now given to the central government? 

1 Vermont, the fourteenth state, had been admitted in 1791. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 249 

4. Why did the delegates not give the choice of President and senators to 
the people directly? What officials did they allow the people to choose? What 
compromise was made in order to adjust the chief difference between the large 
and small states? 

5. How many states accepted the work of the convention? What states 
refused at first to accept? 

6. When was the new government organized? Who became the President 
and Vice-President? Whom did Washington choose as his advisers? Where 
did Washington get the idea of a Cabinet? 

7. How did Congress, under the advice of Hamilton, Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, provide for the expenses of government? Why did Hamilton wish the 
United States to pay the state debts as well as the general debts? Why did 
many citizens oppose this part of his plan? What compromise was adopted in 
Congress to settle tne difference of opinion over state debts and the capital? 

8. Why did Hamilton want Congress to create a Bank of the United 
States? Where had the plan worked well? What objections were made? 
Was Hamilton successful in this part of his scheme for the organization of 
the new government? 

9. What views did Hamilton and Jefferson hold regarding government? 
What party names did their followers take? 

10. In what way was the new and stronger government beneficial to the 
western settlers? What new states were added to the Union? 

EXERCISES 

1. Review in Chapter XX the reasons for abandoning the Articles of Con- 
federation for an entirely new frame of government. 

2. Make a table showing the area and population of the thirteen states 
and group them as large and small states with regard to population. (See 
Appendix, page x.) 

3. Are senators and the President still elected in the n'.anner originally 
provided in the Constitution? 

4. What heads of departments now form the President's Cabinet? 

Important Dates: 

1787. The Constitutional Convention meets in Philadelphia. 
1789. The new Constitution goes into effect, and Washington becomes 
President. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE 

Two New Revolutions. — While the people of the United 
States were busy completing the new framework of govern- 
ment, two revolutions on the other side of the Atlantic began 
to influence them deeply. The first, in England, called the 
Industrial Revolution, introduced new and quicker ways of 
making cloth, iron, steel, and many other things. Tne 
Americans naturally were eager to learn the new methods in 
order to succeed in manufacturing. The second revolution 
was in France, and seemed to be a struggle for the kind of 
liberty and equality which the Americans already enjoyed. 
It therefore appealed strongly to their sympathies. But 
when it led to a terrible war, in which France was arrayed 
against England and Europe, American sympathies were 
divided. This was especially true after the French as well 
as the English began to interfere with American trade. 

Spinning and Weaving. — The first change made in Eng- 
land was in the method of preparing cotton or woolen yarn 
and of weaving it into cloth. The story is told that James 
Hargreaves, an English weaver, entered his house one day 
so suddenly that his wife, startled, upset her spinning-wheel. 
Hargreaves noticed that the wheel kept on turning as it lay 
on the floor, and he wondered why he could not construct a 
wheel in such a manner that it would turn several spindles 
and spin several threads at once. He succeeded in making 
a machine which could spin eight threads, and named it a 
"spinning jenny" in honor of his wife. This was in 1764. 



THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 



251 




Hargreaves's Spinning Jenny 
After an old print 



Hargreaves did not keep his secret long, and soon other 
machines were made, spinning 20 and 30 threads. The most 
successful maker of spinning machines was Richard Ark- 
wright, who after 1769 made and sold great numbers of them. 
The good points of both kinds of machines were soon com- 
bined in a "mule spinner," 
which was in common use 
by the close of the Revolu- 
tionary War. 

Before these spinning 
machines were invented, 
weavers often were unable 
to obtain yarn enough to 
supply their looms. Now 
yarn was spun much faster 
than it was needed. The 
balance was restored by the power-loom, another great 
invention. A clergyman, Edmund Cartwright, invented a 
machine, which was run by power, for weaving the yarn into 
cloth. This soon began to displace the hand-looms. The 
power was furnished at first by horses or water-wheels. 

The Steam-Engine. — About the same time James Watt 
invented the steam-engine. Men had dreamed for ages of 
using the steam which escaped from a boiling kettle for 
driving machinery. Hero, a Greek inventor of Alexandria in 
Egypt, more than one hundred years before Christ, attached 
bent pipes to a boiler so that escaping steam caused the 
pipes to revolve in the same way as lawn sprinklers turn by 
the flow of water. Watt showed how to introduce the steam 
first at one end of a cylinder and then at the other, so as 
to drive a piston back and forth. His engine was able to 
furnish more power than a very large number of horses, and 
could be used where water-wheels could not be set up, and 
could take the place of the water-wheels when the rivers 



252 



THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE 




were low. Watt began to manufacture his engines in 1781. 
Eight years later Cartwright, who had been using an ox to 
drive his power-loom, adopted one of Watt's engines. The 
introduction of the steam-engine made it necessary for 
spinning and weaving to be carried on in places where coal 
for fuel was easily obtained. 
Factories. - These inventions led to the building of mills 

or factories. Hitherto spin- 
ning and weaving had been 
household industries. Women 
had often done the spinning 
in their leisure time. In some 
country districts whole fami- 
lies had spent the long winter 
evenings spinning yarn to sell 
to some weaver or to use 
in the family loom. The 
ordinary family or skilled 
weaver did not have money enough to buy the new 
machines, nor a house large enough to hold them. There- 
fore', men with money built the factories, bought the 
machines, and paid spinners and weavers to run them. 
Many weavers still lived at home and tried to make 
cloth in the old way. licit the cost of making cloth with 
the new machinery was so small that weavers with hand- 
looms found it hard to earn a living. Angry at the loss of 
their business, they sometimes rushed into the factories and 
broke the new machines. The change in the place of making 
cloth from the household to the factory is usually described 
as a change from the "domestic" to the "factory" system. 

Coal, Iron, and Steel. — Two changes in the manner of 
making iron and steel wire equally important. The older 
furnaces had used charcoal, and as the supply of charcoal 
began to give out, the English makers of iron and steel imple- 



\\ \ 11 's s n \m Engine 



AMERICANS AND THE NEW INVENTIONS 253 

mcnts imported pig iron from the American colonies or from 
northern Europe. In 1760 an Englishman made a blast- 
furnace in which coal could be used, and thirty years later 
manufacturers began to use steam-engines to cause the blast. 
The result was a growth in the production of iron and slecl 
as rapid as the growth in the production of cloth had been. 
This drew many workmen from the villages to the towns, 
especially in the coal regions where the new furnaces were 
constructed. 

The Americans and the New Inventions. ----- Americans did 
not wait for the new machine methods of making cloth to be 
fully improved before they began to use them. The English 
government realized the advantage that the inventions gave 
to English manufacturers and merchants, and forbade til her 
the machines or plans of them to be sent out of the country. 
Parliament even tried to prevent the emigration of those 
who knew how to work with the new inventions. The 
Americans, however, found ways of obtaining the needed 
information and constructed the machines themselves. 

A spinning jenny was at work in Philadelphia in the year 
the Revolutionary War broke out, eleven years after Har- 
greaves had invented it. Three years after the close of the 
war a mill for spinning cotton yarn was built at Beverly, Mas- 
sachusetts. Bounties or rewards were offered for the intro- 
duction of English machinery. Samuel Slater, a workman in 
one of Arkwright's mills, heard of the bounty and emigrated 
to America. In order to avoid the heavy penalties for carry- 
ing away models or plans of such machinery, he was obliged 
to store his memory with a knowledge of every part of the 
machine. At Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1789, he suc- 
ceeded in furnishing a mill with the new spinning machinery. 
A French traveler was surprised to find that Arkwright's 
spinning machines were not only well known, but made in 
the United States. 



254 THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE 

At Slater's mill, as in England, women and even boys and 
girls were employed. In a short time the machinery was 
so improved that one worker could tend 300 spindles and 
do as much as 300 girls with the old spinning wheels. Others 
were slow to imitate Slater, for in the next fifteen years only 
four mills were built. Most of the spinning and all of the 
weaving in the United States was still done at home on the 
spinning-wheels and hand-looms. 

Whitney's Cotton-Gin. — The new way of making cotton 
yarn greatly increased the demand for raw cotton. People 
in Georgia began to raise more. In 1786 the Georgians intro- 
duced "sea-island" or long-fiber cotton, which hitherto had 
been brought from South America or the West Indies. 
Short-fiber cotton was raised on the uplands in the interior. 
From 1789 to 1791 the production doubled. The great 
obstacle to success in the cotton trade was the difficulty 
with which the seed was separated from the fiber. A slave 
could clean only five or six pounds a day. EH Whitney, a 
graduate of Yale College, who became a teacher in Georgia, 
resolved to construct a machine which could do this work 
faster. He succeeded in inventing a cotton-gin, which drew 
the fibers through wires by means of cylinders covered with 
teeth. The new machine run by horse-power could clean 300 
pounds of cotton a day. The production of cotton which 
amounted to 2,000,000 pounds in 1791, was 48,000,000 
pounds ten years later. 

Cotton and Slavery. — Another consequence of the grow- 
ing importance of cotton raising was a change of feeling in 
regard to slavery. Soon after the Revolution, Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey, as well as the states farther north, began to 
free their slaves and to forbid slavery within their borders. 
They found such a system of labor unprofitable where farm- 
ing could not be carried on by the methods of the plantation. 
Several of the southern states were already planning similar 



COTTON AND SLAVERY 



255 



action. But the. invention of the cotton-gin and the demand 
of the factories for cotton stopped all talk of this in the 
cotton-growing states. 

The French Revolution. — All these changes were impor- 
tant, but they went on so quietly that few men understood 
how great the industrial revolution was. Most men's atten- 




Improved model Whitney's model 

COTTON-GlNS 

tion was attracted by another kind of revolution going on in 
France. Ever since the American Revolution Frenchmen had 
eagerly asked one another how they too might have more 
liberty. One of their great writers declared, "Man is born 
free, and is everywhere in chains." Those who believed 
this were eager to break the chains and make men free again. 
Louis XVI, the French king, was well-meaning, but he did not 
have energy enough to make the laws fair and just to all. 

The great trouble in France was that the rich and the 
nobles had managed to lay the heaviest burdens upon the 
shoulders of the farmers. Three-quarters of the people were 
peasant farmers, but that was no reason why they should pay 
nine-tenths of the taxes. The poorer townspeople were not 
much better off. The refusal of the upper classes to bear 
their share of the burdens left the government without income 
enough to pay its expenses and its debts. The aid given to 
the United States had added about $300,000,000 to the 



256 THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE 

French national debt. When the government could do 
nothing to prevent bankruptcy a States-General or Na- 
tional Assembly was called together to prepare ways of 
avoiding such a calamity. This body met in May, 1789, 
five days after Washington was inaugurated. Lafayette 
was one of the members. He and other leaders of the 
assembly resolved that France also should have a consti- 
tution which would protect the rights of the people and 
which would distribute the burdens of the country more 
equally. 

Civil War in France. — Many of the nobles, especially the 
courtiers, were angry to see their privileges destroyed. Other 
men thought that the National Assembly made many changes 
which were wrong. Within two years France was divided 
into two parties, one for and the other against the Revolution. 
Its supporters called themselves patriots, like the leaders of 
the Revolution in America in 1775. They hated their oppo- 
nents just as the American patriots hated the Tories or 
loyalists. 

In 1792 civil war broke out in France, and soon afterward 
Louis XVI was dethroned and executed as an enemy of the 
Revolution. By this time the earlier leaders, like Lafayette, 
had lost their influence. Lafayette had even been driven 
into exile. Quarrels with Austria and Prussia had also led 
to war. The execution of the king added England, Holland, 
and Spain to the list of enemies. France seemed arrayed 
against all the governments of Europe. 

The United States and France. — Many Americans, among 
them prominent Federalists, now concluded that France had 
gone too far. Others, especially the followers of Jefferson, 
still believed that the French were fighting in the cause of 
liberty. In consequence the French Revolution increased 
party strife in the United States. 

As soon as war broke out between France and England, the 



THE UNITED STATES AND FRANCE 257 

French expected the Americans to take their side, out of 
gratitude for the help given ten years before. The treaty of 
1778 also pledged the Americans to defend the French West 
Indies. It seemed doubtful to Washington whether the 
Americans should be dragged into a war which the French 
had brought upon themselves. He decided to hold aloof 
and to act in a manner friendly toward all. 

In April, 1793, Genet, a new French minister, landed in the 
United States and tried to induce American privateersmen 
to help France destroy English merchant vessels on the coast. 
Many Americans were glad to see blows struck at England, 
and criticized Washington severely when he put a stop to 
Genet's attempts to draw the country into the war with 
England. Fortunately the French government soon sent 
over another minister. 

Disputes about Trade. — The war raised other more serious 
difficulties. The ships of England and France were obliged 
to charge higher prices for carrying freight, because they were 
in constant danger of loss by capture. This gave a great 
advantage to the ship-owners of a neutral nation, like the 
United States, who could still charge the ordinary rates. 
Neither England nor France was willing to see American 
merchants take away a large part of their trade on the sea. 
''If our trade is lost," they argued, "where shall we get 
money to pay taxes, and without taxes we cannot support 
armies and navies, and may as well confess ourselves 
beaten." 

Of course neutrals were not allowed to carry either to Eng- 
land or France things like powder which could be used in war- 
fare. Why should not the trade in wheat also be stopped, 
for soldiers must have bread as well as powder? So the 
English thought, and they captured American ships loaded 
with wheat bound for France or the French colonies. Eng- 
land also objected when the American shipmasters attempted 



2 5 8 



THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE 



to carry sugar and coffee from the French West Indies to 
Europe. 1 

The people of the United States were almost ready for war 
with Great Britain on account of such quarrels over trade. 
Their anger was increased when British naval officers seized 
Englishmen on board American vessels and compelled them 
to serve in the navy. By Englishmen these officers meant 
any one born in England, whether he had been naturalized 

in the United States or not. 
They held the old notion that, 
"Once an Englishman always an 
Englishman." Often they seized 
American-born sailors, claiming 
that they were English. 

The Jay Treaty. — To save 
the country from war Washing- 
ton sent Chief-Justice Jay to 
England to settle all disputes 
between the two countries, in- 
cluding those which remained 
after the treaty of peace in 1783. 
Jay was only partly successful. The English agreed to 
withdraw their garrisons from the northern frontier posts. 
They would make no promises about impressment, and the 
arrangement they offered concerning the trade with the 
West Indies was so ruinous to American trade that it was 

1 The French were giving the American ships unusual privileges of trade 
with the West Indies, because their own ships were liable to capture, and the 
merchants in France desired to obtain the coffee and sugar raised in the 
colonies. The English, however, declared that the Americans could not take 
advantage of the French offers, because they were due wholly to the war, and 
were simply methods by which the French sought to save their planters as 
well as many of their merchants from ruin. The Americans had traded 
with the French West Indies before war began and, therefore, the English 
had no right to stop all such trade. England later paid damages for seizing 
during the quarrel several hundred American ships trading in the West Indies. 




^" v ^7 ^ i 



John Jay 
After the portrait by Gilbert Stuart 



JOHN ADAMS ELECTED PRESIDENT 259 

finally omitted from the treaty. All Washington's influence 
was required to persuade the Senate to ratify the treaty, 
even with that article left out. 

The Mississippi Question. — In 1795 a satisfactory treaty 
was signed with Spain, making it possible for western settlers 
to float their products down the Mississippi and store them 
in a "place of deposit" at New Orleans, so that they might 
be loaded there upon sea-going ships. 

The French and Jay's Treaty. — When the French heard 
of Jay's treaty they were angry and declared the alliance of 
1778 at an end. They also threatened to treat American 
vessels trading with Great Britain and her colonies exactly 
as the United States permitted the British to treat American 
vessels trading with France and her colonies. The partisans 
of France were very bitter toward Washington. The mer- 
chants were relieved when the danger of war with England 
was gone, but the great mass of the people outside the coast 
towns ardently supported the French and hated the English. 

Change of Administration in the United States. — By 
1797 Washington had served two terms as President. He 
decided not to permit his name to go before the electors again. 
In his farewell address he urged his fellow countrymen "to 
steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the 
foreign world." He now retired to Mount Vernon, where he 
died two years later. 

In the electoral college there was a lively struggle over 
his successor. The quarrel over Jay's treaty still excited 
the Jeffersonians and the Federalists. John Adams, Vice- 
President since 1789, was the Federalist candidate, while the 
Republicans desired Jefferson. Adams won by three votes, 
and Jefferson became Vice-President. 1 

1 The Constitution originally provided that the candidate receiving next 
to the highest number of votes in the electoral college should be Vice- 
President. 



2 6o THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE 

Troubles with France. — Adams had been in office only 
a few months when the country was on the point of declaring 
war against the French. The government of France was now 
bankrupt lis ordinary expenses were paid by money which 
victorious generals like Napoleon Bonaparte sent to Paris 
from conquered lands. When Adams sent commissioners to 
France to settle the difficulties growing out of the European 
war, the officials not only demanded a loan of millions for 
the government, but they asked for 8:50,000 for their own 
pockets. The commissioners replied that they should not 
have a sixpence. The news of this insulting treatment tilled 
most Americans with indignation, although some Republicans 
thought insults the proper way of treating the Adams 
administration. 

In dealing with the situation Adams and his supporters 
in Congress made serious blunders. They wisely provided 
for the construction of several war ships which were author- 
ized to attack French ships. But they also passed an act 
empowering the President to expel foreigners in time of war, 
meaning Frenchmen, and another act punishing as a crime 
criticisms of the government and its officials. These two 
measures, the Alien and Sedition Acts, were denounced by 
the Republicans as attempts to set up a tyrannical govern- 
ment in the United States. The legislatures of Virginia and 
of Kentucky declared them contrary to the Constitution, the 
Kentucky legislature going so far as to declare them null 
and void in " Resolutions" written by Jefferson. Before the 
controversy ended, the Federalists, the party of a strong 
central government, became unpopular. There was little 
chance that Adams would be re-elected for another term. 

A Treaty with France. — Fortunately for America, the 
French government was changed in 1799 and Napoleon 
Bonaparte, as First Consul, became its head. He saw 7 no 
object in prolonging the quarrel with the Americans, and 



A TREATY WITH FRANCE 261 

signed a treaty ending the difficulties. The quarrel had 
interfered little with the trade of American merchants in the 
West Indies. They were busy carrying West India coffee 
and sugar to Europe. To comply with the English rules they 
must first bring the cargoes to the United States, unload 
them, and pay import duties as if they were to be sold in the 
United States. The cargoes could then be put on the same 
ships, the duties paid back, and the ships could sail for Euro- 
pean ports without risk of capture. Before the war between 
England and France the United States exported to Europe 
only about one million pounds of sugar and two million 
pounds of coffee each year. Within four years the amount 
of sugar had risen to 35,000,000 pounds and of coffee to 
62,000,000 pounds. It seemed, therefore, that the misfor- 
tunes of France were as profitable to American merchants as 
English inventions to American manufacturers. Another ten 
years showed that the losses in such trade might be greater 
than the gains. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What two revolutions in Europe deeply influenced the United States? 
Which impressed the American people the more? Why was the industrial 
revolution very important? 

2. What new inventions changed the method of manufacturing in England? 
How did these machines affect the work of the house? Why did the hand 
weavers lose their work? 

3. What two changes took place in iron and steel manufacture? Where 
were the iron workers obliged to go? 

4. Which one of the new inventions was quickly introduced into the United 
States? Who tended the spindles in Slater's mill? 

5. What invention helped the South to produce enough cotton for the 
new factories in England and the United States? How did the demand for cotton 
influence the migration westward? What effect had it on the talk of freeing 
the slaves? 

6. How did the American Revolution affect Frenchmen? What were the 
chief causes of the Revolution in France? Why did some oppose the changes 
in France? What larger war resulted from the French Revolution? 

7. What did Americans think of the French war? Why did some want to 
help France? Why did Washington and his advisers decide not to help France? 



262 THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE 

8. What did Genet attempt to do? What advantage did American ship- 
masters have in trade over the English and French? How did the English 
try to deprive them of this advantage? Under what conditions did England 
allow them to carry French sugar and coffee to Europe? 

9. What other trouble did the United States have with Great Britain? 
How much did Jay's treaty obtain in the way of concessions from England? 

10. How was the Mississippi question finally settled? 

n. What did the French do when they heard of Jay's treaty with England? 
What did France do which brought the United States and France to the verge 
of a great war? How did President Adams and the Federalists in dealing with 
the French trouble make a great many opponents and so bring on their defeat 
in the next election? 

12. Why were the wars of France and the inventions of England both 
profitable for many Americans? 

EXERCISES 

1. Describe the method of making cloth before the industrial revolution. 
If possible first visit a museum where the hand machines formerly used may 
be seen. 

2. If possible visit a cotton or woolen mill and learn about the various stages 
in making cloth today. 

3. Tell the story. of the invention of Hargreaves's spinning jenny. 

4. Tell the story of how Samuel Slater introduced the spinning machinery 
into the United States. 

5. Tell the story of Eli Whitney's cotton-gin. 

6. Review in Chapter XX the way in which American merchants had secured 
a profitable trade in the West Indies in 1785 and 1786. What trouble had 
they over this trade during the war between England and France? 

7. Review in Chapter XX the early history of the Mississippi question. 
Who were naturally greatly pleased by the final settlement? 

Important Events: 

1789. Samuel Slater sets up a spinning mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. 

The French Revolution begins. 
1793. Eli Whitney invents the cotton-gin. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

RULE OF JEFFERSON: A NEW WEST 

Jefferson elected President. — The Federalists had guided 
the country safely past the dangers of war with Great Britain 
and France, but their rule had become unpopular. They 
stood for strong government and high taxes. Although 
Adams expelled no Frenchman under the Alien Act, the 
power it gave him offered his opponents the chance to call 
him a tyrant. Moreover, he had permitted several Repub- 
lican journalists to be prosecuted under the Sedition Act. 
The Republicans for years had been accusing him of being 
at heart a monarchist. 

In 1800 the new election took place. Now that Washing- 
ton was dead, the Federalists quarreled among themselves. 
Hamilton criticized Adams publicly, but could not prevent 
his nomination. The Republicans nominated Jefferson, who 
was very popular except in New England and among the 
merchants of the coast towns. Jefferson was victorious, 
obtaining 73 electoral votes, while Adams received 65. 1 

The New Capital. — One of the last acts of the Federalists 
was to move the seat of government from Philadelphia to 
Washington, the new capital on the Potomac. The city was 
located in a tract of land ten miles square, called the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, which had been given to the United 

Jefferson and his Republican "running-mate," Aaron Burr, received the 
same number of votes, and the House of Representatives chose Jefferson Pres- 
ident and Burr Vice-President. An amendment was adopted in 1804 which 
required the electors to vote separately for President and Vice-President. 



264 



RULE OF JEFFERSON: A NEW WEST 



States by Virginia and Maryland. 1 It was laid out on a 
spacious plan, its wide streets, large parks, and gardens 
taking up more than half the ground. Little had been done 
by 1800. A row of dreary boarding-houses, a partly finished 
capitol building for Congress, a President's house — these 
were all. The streets were ungraded, and ran through vast 
patches of scrubby oak, wild ravines, and marshy river flats. 




The White House in 1800 

Many made fun of it as a city of magnificent distances, or 
the seat of the President's "palace in the woods." It seemed 
a dreary place to the members of Congress accustomed to 
the gay life of Philadelphia. 

The New President. — ■ The new President was more 
interesting than the new capital. In appearance he was tall, 
of a reddish complexion, freckled, awkward, and shy in 
manner. An English traveler said that he looked like 
a "large-boned farmer." Although a great landowner and 
planter in Virginia, he was a man of simple habits. He 
disliked the ceremonial with which Washington had sur- 
rounded the duties of the President. Instead of proceeding 
to the capitol building for his inauguration in a coach drawn 

1 In 1846 Congress returned Virginia's part, south of the Potomac, because 
it was not needed. 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION 



265 




by six cream-colored horses, as Adams had done, he walked 
across the square from his boarding-house accompanied by 
a few friends and escorted by the militia. 

When Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence 
"that all men are born equal," he meant every word. Like 
the early leaders of the French 
Revolution, many of whom 
were his friends, he thought 
men, especially the "plain 
people," were inclined to do 
right and could be trusted. 
He believed that the people 
should be left to govern them- 
selves in their towns, counties, 
and states with as little inter- 
ference from the central gov- 
ernment as possible. He 
would have every man vote 
who earned a living, instead 
of limiting the privilege to property holders, as in most of 
the older states. 

Jefferson was already famous. He had been governor of 
Virginia and minister to France after Franklin's return. Id 
Virginia he had not only carried through laws dividing a 
father's estate equally among all the children, but he had 
also brought it about that every one should be free to at- 
tend and support the church he preferred or none at all. In 
other words, he established religious freedom in Virginia. It 
was his ambition to organize a complete system of educa- 
tion, beginning with the elementary school and ending with 
a university. He also wished to free children born of negro 
slaves, and thus gradually bring slavery in Virginia to an end. 
He said he wanted "equal and exact justice for all men" and 
"peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations.'* 



Thomas Jefferson 
After the portrait by Gilbert Stuart 



266 RULE OF JEFFERSON: A NEW WEST 

It is no wonder that many thought his election a great event, 
the promise of better things for all people. 

An Economical Administration. — As soon as Jefferson 
became President, he worked to lessen the expenses of the 
government. The army was reduced from 4,000 to 2,500 
men. This could be done because the danger of war was 
over for the time. The same reason made possible econo- 
mies in the navy, which Jefferson believed "caused more 
dangers than it prevented." In his management of the 
finances he had the assistance of Albert Gallatin, an able 
Secretary of the Treasury, who in his youth had emigrated 
to America from Switzerland. Within eight years a third of 
the public debt was paid. 

Purchase of Louisiana. — Jefferson, however, was ready 
to spend money for a great purpose. In 1803 he had an 
unexpected opportunity to purchase the vast territory of 
Louisiana, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico into the far 
northwest to the Rocky Mountains. It came about in this 
way. One of the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte, the First 
Consul of France, was to reestablish the French colonial em- 
pire destroyed by England in the Seven Years' War. In 
1798, two years before he became First Consul, he had been 
sent to Egypt, which the French thought would be a good 
half-way station to India. Although he conquered Egypt, he 
was obliged to abandon it because his fleet was beaten by an 
English fleet under Lord Nelson, and he could get no further 
help from home. In 1802 France and England made peace, 
and General Bonaparte resolved to recover part of the terri- 
tory that the French had once held in the Mississippi Valley. 
He had already compelled the Spaniards to promise to turn 
over Louisiana to France as soon as he should be ready to 
occupy it. 

Just here trouble came. Bonaparte thought that he should 
first recover Santo Domingo, a rich colony in the West Indies 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 



267 



in which the slaves had risen in an insurrection and chosen 
a negro general, Toussaint L'Ouverture, as their ruler. Bona- 
parte's officers seized Toussaint L'Ouverture, but other 
leaders took his place and kept up the struggle. Soon yellow 
fever broke out in the French army and the soldiers died by 
thousands. When Bonaparte heard the news, he realized 




The Louisiana Purchase 

the difficulties of his enterprise. He was also on the verge of 
another war with Great Britain. He was therefore ready to 
get rid of Louisiana. 

Spain's agreement to cede Louisiana to France had been 
kept a secret, but Jefferson suspected it soon after he became 
President. Possession of this colony by Spain, which was 
growing weaker year by year, had no terrors for the Ameri- 
cans, but possession by France, under such a leader as Bona- 
parte, was another affair. The western settlers feared for 
their river trade, which already formed more than a fourth of 
the commerce of the United States. Their alarm was changed 
to a certainty of impending ruin when, in 1802, the Spanish 



268 RULE OF JEFFERSON: A NEW WEST 

intendant or governor at New Orleans refused to allow 
Americans to deposit their goods in New Orleans. Western 
farmers had no wish to leave their products to decay in their 
sheds and fields. They talked of war, and the militia of 
frontier towns began to drill so as to be ready in case war 
should come. 

Jefferson, like Washington, had always been greatly inter- 
ested in the prosperity of the West, but he did not wish to go 
to war with France. He thought that the best way was to 
buy New Orleans outright. When the American minister 
offered to buy New Orleans he was asked, "What will you 
give for the whole of Louisiana?" Napoleon needed money 
for the war with England which seemed certain. Besides, 
he was shrewd enough to know that England's superior 
navy would enable her to take Louisiana anyway and pre- 
ferred to sell what he could not hope to keep. 

A price, $15,000,000, was easily fixed, and the bargain 
completed. It was a strange transaction. Napoleon had 
no right to sell Louisiana without the consent of Spain and 
his own assembly in France. Spain vainly protested that the 
sale of Louisiana to America was illegal. 1 Many Frenchmen 
also were bitterly disappointed. For a second time they were 
obliged to abandon the attempt to create a New France in 
North America. 

Did the President have Power to purchase Louisiana? — 
In America there were quarrels over the purchase of Louisi- 
ana. Even the President doubted at first whether the Con- 
stitution gave him power to acquire any territory. He had 
in times past denounced Washington and Adams and the 
whole Federalist party for using powers which were not ex- 
pressly given to them in the Constitution. And now he and 
his own party were doing the same thing in annexing Loui- 

1 An agent of France on November 30, 1803, received Louisiana from the 
Spanish governor, and 17 days later turned it over to the United States. 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 



269 



siana. But Jefferson concluded that the welfare of the 
country was more important than his earlier notions about 
the powers of the government. 

How little was known of Louisiana. — Many thought that 
the price Jefferson paid for the new territory, which was at 
the rate of three 
cents an acre, 
was too high. 
They believed 
much of the land 
to be worthless. 
Even the Presi- 
dent had an idea 
that the part 
east of the Mis- 
sissippi was 
mostly barren 
sands and sunk- 
en marshes. 
This he wanted 
only because it 
contained the 
mouths of rivers like the Mississippi and the Mobile. As for 
the rest of Louisiana, that was purchased somewhat as boys 
trade jack-knives, "sight unseen." The greater part was the 
hunting ground of scattered, roving Indian bands. No 
white man knew anything definite about its size, its bound- 
aries, or its resources. 

The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United 
States and extended it into the very heart of the continent. 
This single territory formed an area larger than Great Brit- 
ain, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy taken together. 
Thirteen states and parts of states have been formed from 
it and admitted into the Union. 




The Old Cabildo of New Orleans 

In this the official transfer of Louisiana by France to the 
United States took place 



270 



RULE OF JEFFERSON: A NEW WEST 



In 1803 the white settlers were clustered along the river 
near the mouth of the Mississippi. New Orleans was the 
chief town. The rivers were the highways, boats the car- 
riers, and so for convenience the plantations usually fronted 
on the rivers, as in early Virginia and the Carolinas. Most 
of the people were French or the negro slaves of French 
masters. Two or three small French villages, including St. 
Louis, were located far up the Mississippi River, but the 




Lewis and Clark's Route 

settlers were chiefly the trappers and Indian traders who 
always hung on the frontier of French settlements in Amer- 
ica. A few emigrants from the United States had already 
pushed into this foreign colony. Daniel Boone, finding neigh- 
bors too numerous in Kentucky, was trapping and farming 
on the Missouri River, near its mouth. The upper courses 
of the Arkansas, the Missouri, and the Mississippi were wholly 
unknown. Traders and trappers told strange tales of these 
regions — that Indians of gigantic stature inhabited the 
interior; that the soil was too rich to grow trees; that a thou- 
sand miles up the Missouri existed a vast mountain "of solid 
rock-salt, without any trees or even shrubs on it," measuring 
180 miles in length and 45 in width. 



LEWIS AND CLARK'S EXPEDITION 



271 



Lewis and Clark's Expedition, 1804-06. — In 1804 Jefferson 
sent Meriwether Lewis, his private secretary, and William 
Clark, a younger brother of George Rogers Clark, to explore 
the new territory, find a path through the mountains to the 
Pacific, and learn what they could of the country and its 
Indian tribes. 
Two score and 
five frontiers- 
men made up 
the expedition. 
They rowed, 
or with favor- 
able winds sail- 
ed, the boats 
slowly up the 
Missouri, 
camping at 
night. They 
supplied them- 
selves with 
food from the 

wild game which abounded in the region — geese, antelope, 
deer, bear, elk, and enormous herds of buffalo. 

The party wintered among friendly Indians near where 
Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, now stands, and with 
small canoes pushed on up the shallower waters of the Upper 
Missouri. An Indian squaw, called the Bird Woman, who 
had been kidnapped from a mountain tribe, accompanied 
them from their winter camp and won for them the friendship 
of her kindred in the mountains. The explorers followed 
the course of the Missouri across North Dakota and Montana 
until the river separated into three branches. These were 
named the Jefferson, the Madison, and the Gallatin. The 
expedition pushed on up the Jefferson branch until this was 




Gates of the Rocky Mountains. 

So called by Lewis and Clark, who passed them July 19, 1805. 

The Missouri River is here confined by a spur of the 

Big Belt Mountains 



272 RULE OF JEFFERSON: A NEW WEST 

no longer navigable. Then they left their canoes and bought 
horses from the Indians, who showed them a path through 
the mountains. After a time they could not find game and 
had to kill some of their horses for food. When they reached 
a large river that flowed westward, they made canoes and 
floated down to the Columbia. They followed the Columbia 
until it broadened into a bay studded with low islands, and 
until the roar of breakers showed them that they had reached 
the Pacific. 

They were now 2,100 miles from St. Louis. They built 
log-huts and spent a second winter in the western wilderness 
surrounded by Indians. The return was easier, and they 
reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806. It was an expe- 
dition worthy to rank with that of De Soto and Coronado. 
One man had died and only one Indian had been killed. 

Zebulon Pike. — At the same time Zebulon Pike was sent 
to explore other portions of Louisiana Territory. In 1805, 
with a few companions, he followed the Mississippi River 
nearly to its source. In 1806 he undertook the harder task 
of visiting the Indians and exploring the country along the 
eastern border of the Rocky Mountains. He followed the 
Missouri and then the Osage River, and zigzagged across 
the plains of Kansas, touching once the boundary of what is 
now Nebraska and at another time that of Oklahoma. Pike 
thought that the Arkansas River valley must be a paradise 
for the wandering savages because of the abundance of game 
— buffalo, elk, and deer. 

Part of the way he was close to the path that Coronado 
had taken from New Mexico into central Kansas 265 years 
earlier. He met few Indians. In exploring the mountain 
front, looking for a pass, Pike found and described the Royal 
Gorge of the Arkansas River and the beautiful mountain 
peak which bears his name. The expedition suffered in- 
tensely when winter came on. At one time the members 



RESULTS OF WESTERN EXPLORATION 



273 



were four days without food, tramping knee-deep through 
snow, and loaded down with some seventy pounds of baggage 
apiece. The famished men finally found a herd of buffaloes. 
Pike wandered around in the mountains of southern Colo- 
rado until he crossed the frontier into the territory of Spain. 
The Spanish authorities, taking him to be a spy, seized him 
and carried him to Santa Fe in New Mexico. He was later 




Natchez ^ 



Pike's Route 

taken to El Paso, but was released and found his way back to 
the United States in 1807. 

Results of Exploration in the Far West. — The descrip- 
tion of Louisiana by these pathfinders prepared the way for 
its settlement later. At the time the American people had 
enough land east of the Mississippi. Even President Jeffer- 
son thought that the new country would be most useful if 
kept as a reservation for the Indians, who were barring the 
progress of settlement in the older territories. Indian trade 
and trapping for furs were the only chances for immediate 
profit from the vast region. 

Oregon. — Lewis and Clark had pushed far beyond the 
boundaries of Louisiana and laid the basis for a claim upon 
the Oregon country. This meant all that territory included 



274 



RULE OF JEFFERSON: A NEW WEST 



in the present states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. 
Captain Gray, an American commander, had long before, in 
1792, sailed along the Pacific coast. In 181 1 John Jacob 
Astor established a trading post, named Astoria, at the 
mouth of the Columbia River. All these expeditions gave 
the United States a claim on Oregon and thus an opening 
for the United States to the Pacific. Astor's men soon sold 



&4M*Sfi%^& 




m ' 






mm 






m 



Astoria in 181 i 
The fur traders' post of the Oregon country. After an old print 

the post to British fur traders. Fortunately, after the War 
of 181 2, the United States obtained possession of Astoria, 
and it became again an American outpost on the Pacific. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why were the Federalists defeated in the election of 1800? Who was 
elected President? 

2. What change was made in the location of the United States capital? 
How did the national government secure the District of Columbia? Describe 
Washington in 1800. 

3. Why was Jefferson popular with the "plain people"? What were his 
ideas of government? What had he accomplished in Virginia? What did he 
do to lessen the expenses of the government? 

4. What was Napoleon's New World project? How did he attempt to 
carry this out? Why was he obliged to abandon it? Why was he ready in 
1803 to get rid of Louisiana? 

5. Why were Americans alarmed over the cession of Louisiana from Spain 
to France? How did Spain further alarm them in 1802? 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 



275 



6. Describe the purchase of Louisiana. What did Jefferson try to pur- 
chase? What did he actually secure? Why was this a strange thing for 
Napoleon and Jefferson to do? 

7. What did Americans think of Louisiana? Describe the settlements 
which had been made there. 

8. Whom did Jefferson send to explore Louisiana? Describe the journeys 
of these famous explorers. 

9. How did Jefferson think the United States could best use the new 
territory? Why was he anxious to move the Indians westward? 

10. What country besides Louisiana did Lewis and Clark explore? What 
claims had the United States on Oregon? What other nation now also claimed 
Oregon? 




Scene on the Columbia River 
Showing Mount Hood 

EXERCISES 

1. Review Chapters XXI and XXII for a list of things accomplished by 
the Federalists. 

2. Review the exploration of Coronado in the Southwest. See page 10 or 
Introductory American History, pages 193-203. 

3. Trace on an outline map the journeys of Lewis and Clark and of Pike, 
making a list of the present states which they touched. 

4. Which country, the United States or Spain, had the greater part of the 
territory west of the Mississippi River after the purchase of Louisiana? (See 
map, page 267.) What must both do next if they were to hold the terri- 
tories they claimed? 



Important Dates: 

1801. Thomas Jefferson becomes President. 

1803. Louisiana purchased from France. 

1804-1806. Lewis and Clark explore Louisiana and Oregon. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE UNITED STATES AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 

Turmoil again in Europe. — A month after the United 
States bought Louisiana from Napoleon, war broke out be- 
tween France and England. This war was in reality a con- 
tinuation of the war which had been waged from 1793 until 
1802. It did not end until 18 14. If the first war had given 
American merchants an opportunity to carry a large part 
of the freight between the West Indies and Europe, the 
new war seemed likely to be still more profitable, because 
all European countries except Turkey were finally drawn 
into it. 

European War and the United States. — Could the Amer- 
icans keep out of a struggle which, like a terrible whirlpool, 
might engulf those who appeared to be at a safe distance? 
Their experience during the war which began in 1793 showed 
the danger. All the influence of Washington had been needed 
to keep them from attacking the English in 1794. In the 
new war their self-restraint was due to the influence of 
President Jefferson and of President Madison, who succeeded 
him in 1809. 1 Nevertheless they were finally drawn into the 
struggle. The War of 181 2 was the consequence. 

The War at first a Duel between France and England. — 
From 1803 to 1805 the contest was between the English and 
the French. It was almost as if an elephant should try to 
attack a whale. The French army was the best in Europe. 

1 In 1804 Jefferson was overwhelmingly reelected. In the election four 
years later Jefferson supported his Secretary of State, James Madison, who was 
chosen President after a contest almost as one-sided as that of 1804. 



WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 277 



It was commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, the greatest 
general of modern times, whom the French proclaimed their 
Emperor in 1804. On land the French army seemed uncon- 
querable so long as he was at its head. But it could not 
attack the English directly, although England is separated 
from the Continent only by the Channel, which is twenty- 
live miles wide. In the "narrow seas," as well as on the 
broad ocean, the English seemed invincible because of their 
powerful navy. The French 
had many battleships, but these 
were blockaded in French ports 
by English fleets. 

Only once during the war did 
the French venture to fight the 
English on the sea. This was off 
Cape Trafalgar in October, 1805, 
and their fleet, together with the 
ships of Spain, at that time 
their ally, numbered 33. The 
English had 27 ships, but they 
were commanded by Lord Nel- 
son, who was as skilful on the 
sea as Napoleon was on the land, 
conflict, 60 ships-of-the-line, many of them carrying a hun- 
dred cannon! The French and the Spaniards sailed in a 
long fine, while the English moved down upon them in two 
lines or columns. Nelson's flag-ship, the Victory, was at the 
head of one column. At its mast-head flew Nelson's signal, 
" England expects every man to do his duty." Few French 
or Spanish ships escaped in the fierce struggle which followed. 
Nelson was killed, but his last victory gave England com- 
mand of the seas for a century. 

Extension of the War. — -In 1805 the war began to spread. 
Austria and Russia became England's allies and declared 




Lord Nelson 



What a tremendous 



278 AMERICA AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 

war on France. They were defeated, and Austria made 
peace. In 1806 Prussia, aided by Russia, tried to drive 
the terrible French Emperor from Germany, but both were 
beaten and obliged to make peace. Then Sweden, Den- 
mark, and Portugal were forced to take sides. Holland was 
from the beginning managed by the French. By 1807 the 
United States was the only neutral of importance. Could 
the United States trade peacefully in such a warring world? 

How American Trade was affected. — The answer to the 
question depended upon the English, for the United States 
had only a few frigates, while the English had at least 75 
battleships. At first the English permitted American mer- 
chants to import French, Spanish, and Dutch sugar and 
coffee from the West Indies and export them to Europe. 
But they soon found that the American shippers could 
undersell them in the European market, notwithstanding 
the expense of carrying the sugar first into a port of the 
United States and unloading it. The English merchants and 
planters complained that their business was suffering. The 
English government then began seizing American ships 
engaged in this trade. 

English war ships cruised off the ports of the United States 
and stopped vessels passing in and out, taking possession of 
those which had broken any of the rules that the English gov- 
ernment had made in regard to neutral trade. In stopping 
a vessel near New York several shots were fired, one of which 
killed the steersman. Sometimes when the English vessels 
disappeared French vessels, equally contemptuous of Ameri- 
can rights, would take their places. 

The English Excuse. — The English parliament had to 
listen to the complaints of merchants, shipowners, and plant- 
ers, because it was laying heavy taxes upon them. England 
was obliged to lend vast sums to her allies on the Continent, 
otherwise they could not have kept up the conflict with the 



THE EMBARGO 



279 



French for six months. Even before the war began in 1803 
England's debt amounted to five billion dollars, at the pres- 
ent value of money. Every man with more than $2,000 
income was compelled to give a tenth of it in taxes to the 
government. 

Difficulties increase. — In 1806 and 1807 troubles thickened 
for the American merchants. 
The English declared that they 
would capture any ships which 
tried to enter ports on the north- 
western coast of France. Bona- 
parte retorted by declaring that 
French ships would seize any 
vessel which traded with Great 
Britain. England's reply to this 
challenge was that their enemies 
in Europe should not have any 
coffee, sugar, cotton, or dye 
stuffs, unless they purchased 
these products from English 
merchants or from neutral mer- 
chants whose ships stopped at 
an English port and paid taxes on the cargoes. In 1807, 
before these rules went into effect, the United States exported 
64,000,000 pounds of cotton alone, worth $5,476,000. 

The Embargo. — No one would greatly blame Jefferson and 
Congress if they had gone to war at this time, so serious were 
the wrongs under which the United States was suffering. 
They decided instead to attempt to compel the British to 
respect American rights by threatening not to buy English 
goods. This had been a useful weapon in obtaining the repeal 
of the Stamp Act many years before. But the situation in 
December, 1807, looked so serious that Jefferson urged Con- 
gress to pass an Act called an "Embargo," forbidding Amer- 




Napoleon Bonaparte 
After the portrait by Paul Delaroche 



28o AMERICA AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 

ican vessels to leave port, and forbidding all other vessels to 
carry any cargo which was not on board at the time they 
were notified of the Act. The Embargo enraged the New 
England shipowners, who were making money in spite of 
Bonaparte's declarations and England's orders. They could 
afford to lose a ship or two now and then, taking into account 
the enormous profits obtained when they landed colonial 
products or their own goods in Europe. The size of the 
profits may be guessed when it is remembered that the 
price of sugar in Paris rose steadily until in 1811 it was 80 
cents a pound. 

Although the Embargo, and a Non-Importation Act enforced 
at the same time, took from the English the American market, 
their shipowners did not suffer. The ocean freight business 
and the colonial trade were now in their hands. The New 
Englanders complained so strongly, even threatening to 
secede from the Republic, that just before Jefferson's term of 
office ended a Non-Intercourse Act was substituted for the 
Embargo. By this Act trade was permitted with all coun- 
tries except England and France, and would be permitted 
with them if they agreed to treat American ships fairly. 

Conduct of Napoleon. — ■ In all these difficulties the Ameri- 
cans had as much reason to complain of Napoleon's conduct 
as of that of the British government. At one time he seized 
American ships worth $10,000,000. French privateers also 
did a good deal of damage to neutral shipping. However, 
the French had far less power for harm than the English. 

Impressment of Seamen. — The quarrel with the English 
over the impressment of seamen was quite as fierce as the 
quarrel about trade. It was customary in England, when a 
crew was needed for a war ship, to send bodies of marines, 
called "press-gangs," through the sailors' haunts in the ports 
and seize enough seamen. If a sailor happened to be an 
American, he might be seized with the rest. The United 



IMPRESSMENT OF SEAMEN 281 

States had no agents in England who could protect its sail- 
ors from such outrages. English war ships also frequently 
stopped merchant vessels on the ocean and took the men they 
needed. If they thought there were Englishmen on board 
American vessels, they stopped them also. The fact that a 
sailor had been naturalized did not save him, for the officers 
held that he had not ceased to be an Englishman. Before 
these troubles ended about 4,000 Americans were serving 
against their will in the British navy. 

The injustice was not all on one side. While American 
merchants were making money as neutral traders, they were 
eager to obtain men. The number of sailors in the United 
States was not sufficient to man all the ships. The merchants, 
accordingly, offered higher wages, raising them from $8 a 
month to $24. The bait proved attractive, especially as 
the English sailors were poorly paid and ill-treated. Scores 
began to desert. Some ships had scarcely men enough to 
get out of the American port which they had entered. At 
Norfolk, Virginia, one ship lost every sailor. The sailors 
often changed their names, obtained naturalization papers, 
and pretended that they were American citizens. News of 
such things enraged the British naval officers and they grew 
more insulting in their search of American ships. Their acts 
would not have been endured for a moment had the United 
States been strong enough to compel the British government 
to change its way of dealing with the difficulty. 

The "Chesapeake" and the "Leopard," 1807. — In 1807 
several sailors deserted from British frigates in Chesapeake 
Bay and afterward enlisted on the United States frigate 
Chesapeake, which was then being fitted out for service in the 
Mediterranean. The British officers requested the return of 
the men, but American officials refused. This refusal angered 
the British admiral at Halifax and he ordered that the Chesa- 
peake be searched as soon as it appeared on the ocean. The 



282 AMERICA AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 

task was assigned to the frigate Leopard. The com- 
mander of the Chesapeake rightly refused to permit a 
search, but his ship was not ready for a battle. The Leop- 
ard fired upon him and in a few minutes he was forced to 
surrender. The news of the outrage sent a thrill of anger 
through the country. Jefferson was still anxious to main- 
tain peace. 

Madison's Efforts to keep Peace. — President Madison 
had no better success than Jefferson in persuading the English 
and the French to respect the rights of neutral traders. After 
he had been in office a year the Non-Intercourse Act was with- 
drawn, on the understanding that if either England or France 
promised to deal fairly with American trade, all commerce 
with the other was to be broken off. Napoleon hastened to 
make such an offer, 1 hoping to bring on a conflict between the 
United States and Great Britain. His shrewd offer was suc- 
cessful. Congress passed a new Non-Intercourse Act directed 
against the English. 

Tippecanoe. — In 1811 the people of the West were aroused 
against the English because of a threatened Indian attack 
under the leadership of a chief named Tecumseh. It was said 
that the Indians were furnished with arms by English traders. 
The real cause of Indian hostility was the steady advance of 
the settlers into the Indian hunting grounds. The people of 
Indiana Territory did not wait to be attacked, but, led by 
their governor, General William Henry Harrison, marched 
against the Indians, defeated them at Tippecanoe Creek, and 
burned their villages. 

Henry Clay and Other "War Hawks." — Many had now 
become dissatisfied with the policy of peace which Jefferson 
and Madison held. Foremost among these was Henry Clay 

1 At this very time Napoleon was threatening Russia with war because the 
Emperor Alexander refused to seize several hundred American ships in the 
Baltic Sea. 



THE "WAR HAWKS" 283 

of Kentucky. He was a young lawyer, gifted with a musi- 
cal voice and a charming manner. He was ably aided by 
others, like himself full of enthusiasm for American rights 
and confident of American success in a war. The most dis- 
tinguished of these was John C. Calhoun, also a young man, 
and like Clay a brilliant debater. These leaders, who had just 
been elected to the House of Representatives, did everything 
they could to bring on war with England. John Randolph, 
who hated them both, called them and their followers "War 
Hawks." 

The War Hawks were mainly from the new West and the 
farther South, which were without great sea-ports or exposed 
shores. Many of the New Englanders thought Napoleon 
a greater enemy than the English. The War Hawks were 
willing to wage war against both England and France, except 
for the cost and risk of defeat. Madison and other states- 
men from the middle states, and especially from Virginia, 
were opposed to war with either country if it could be 
avoided. Clay argued that the United States could conquer 
Canada, and then England would either have to yield or lose 
its colony. This argument won the majority in Congress; 
Madison, weary of the conflict, gave way, and war was 
declared. 

Should the War have been avoided? — On June 18, 181 2, 
Congress declared war. Two days before this the English 
government decided to withdraw a part of the regulations 
which had injured American merchants. The news did not 
reach the United States until long after the war had begun. 
Moreover, the other grievances remained. The War Hawks 
thought the seizure of the sailors worse than interference 
with American trade. 

In declaring war on Great Britain in 18 12 the United States 
became virtually an ally of Napoleon and helped him in two 
enterprises with which they could have had no sympathy. 



284 AMERICA AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS 

For years .he had been trying to place his brother on the 
Spanish throne and the Spaniards were fighting desperately 
to prevent it. The English under Wellington were assisting 
the Spaniards and had defeated several French armies in Por- 
tugal and in Spain. Of course, to attack the English was to 
aid Napoleon's Spanish enterprise, at least indirectly. 




Europe at the height of Napoleon's Power 



In 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia with an immense army 
in order to humble the Emperor, who, for one thing, had 
refused to seize American neutral vessels in the Baltic Sea 
two years before. If the Americans succeeded in keeping 
England, Napoleon's other principal enemy, busy, the Rus- 
sians might conclude that they were badly rewarded for 
their fairness. The War Hawks of 181 2 thought neither of 
the Spanish nor of the Russian campaign, except to argue 
that the English were so deeply involved in their struggle 
against Napoleon that they could not defend Canada. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 285 



QUESTIONS 

1. Why was Napoleon Bonaparte so successful? Why was it impossible 
for him to conquer England? What happened when the French tried to 
meet the English on the high seas? 

2. What other countries were drawn into the great European war? What 
countries did Napoleon control from the first? Which did he conquer dur- 
ing the war? 

3. Why did England wish to stop American trade in sugar and coffee? 
Were the English the only ones who interfered with American rights? What 
excuse had the English for helping their merchants to secure a monopoly of 
trade during the war? 

4. What rules about trade did England and France lay down? How did 
such rules affect American merchants? 

5. What methods did Jefferson employ to force England and France to 
respect American rights? Why did the Embargo make the New England 
ship-owners angry? Why did it fail to injure English shipowners as much as 
American? What did Jefferson substitute for the Embargo? 

6. How did Napoleon treat American trade on the seas? Why did the 
United States overlook his acts? 

7. What other grievances had the United States against the British? What 
did the Americans do which gave the British some excuse for thinking them 
unfair? Tell the story of the Chesapeake and Leopard. 

8. How did Madison try to bring England and France to terms? Why did 
Napoleon promise to deal fairly with American trade? What was Congress 
then obliged to do? 

9. What special reason had the people of the West for being angry with 
the British? What was the real cause of the Indian trouble in the West? 

10. Who began in 181 2 vigorously to oppose Madison's way of dealing with 
England and France? What expectation had the "War Hawks" from a war 
with England? 

EXERCISES 

1. Make two lists: one under the heading, "Reasons why the war should 
have been avoided," and another under the heading, "Grounds for a war with 
England." 

2. Have the class choose two champions to debate the affirmative and 
negative sides of the question, "The War of 1812 could have been avoided." 

Important Date: 

181 2. War is declared against Great Britain. 



CHAPTER XXV 



THE WAR OF 1812 

An Unequal Struggle. — The great war in Europe, although 
it had brought war upon the Americans, saved them from 
some of the perils of an unequal struggle. What could the 
United States with an army of 6,700 men and a fleet of 18 

ships expect to accomplish 
against England, whose 
army numbered 150,000 
men and whose fleet con- 
sisted of 900 ships? Eng- 
land, however, was obliged 
to guard many seas, and 
could despatch only a 
small part of her fleet to 
American waters. She 
could send over only a few 
regiments, because most of 
her soldiers were needed 
for the struggle which 
Wellington was carrying on with the French in Spain. 

Invasion of Canada. — Clay thought that it would be easy 
to take Canada. From the first this was the main object of 
the United States. The leaders forgot that the task was 
far more difficult than it would have been during the Revo- 
lutionary War. At that time the population of Canada was 
chiefly French. Since then Upper Canada had been settled, 
much of it with loyalist refugees from the United States. 
The United Empire Loyalists still remembered their suffer- 




American fleet 



English fleet 



Relative size of the American and 
English Fleets 



EVENTS OF THE FIRST YEAR 287 

ings at the hands of the patriots thirty years before, and 
could be counted upon to resist stubbornly the attempts of 
the sons of the patriots to seize their new home. 

Hull's Ill-Fated Attempt. — Three separate invasions of 
Canada were planned: one from Detroit, a second from the 
Niagara frontier, and a third by the Hudson- Champlain 
route. General Hull was despatched through the woods of 
northwestern Ohio and southern Michigan to Detroit. Most 
of the way he was obliged to cut a road for his troops. It 
was difficult to feed his soldiers, for, as yet, few settlers lived 
on the southern and western shores of Lake Erie. The 
single boat which the Americans had on the lake was soon 
captured by the British. Supplies could be forwarded only 
with great difficulty and expense. It cost $60 to carry a 
barrel of flour from New York or Philadelphia to Detroit. 
It cost fifty cents to send a pound of powder or shot. The 
difficulty was increased by the hostility of the Indians, who 
had not been crushed by their defeat at Tippecanoe the year 
before. Indeed, Tecumseh rallied them to the aid of the 
English all through the Northwest. 

Upon his arrival in Detroit, Hull issued a pompous procla- 
mation, declaring that he had come to rescue the Canadians 
from oppression. The legislature of Upper Canada retorted 
by accusing the Americans of being completely under the 
control of Bonaparte. Hull's expedition speedily came to a 
disastrous end. Threatened by an army of British soldiers, 
Canadian militia, and Indians, and cut off from reinforce- 
ments, he surrendered in August, 181 2. A short time before 
the British had captured the little garrison at Mackinac, and 
the very day before an Indian war party had massacred 
most of the garrison at Fort Dearborn, where Chicago now 
stands. The fall of Fort Dearborn, Mackinac, and Detroit 
gave the British control of Michigan Territory. This was 
a bad beginning. 



288 



THE WAR OF 1812 



Other Invasions. — Every attempt of the American armies 
to invade and conquer Canada, made in 1812, 1813, and 18 14, 
failed ingloriously. Only once did the invaders hold their 
own. In 1 8 14, the third year of the war, General Jacob Brown 

and General Winfield 
Scott met the Eng- 
lish and Canadians 
at Chippewa and 
Lundy's Lane, both 
near Niagara River, 
and proved that 
American soldiers 
were fully equal to 
the staunchest Brit- 
ish regulars. An Eng- 
lish officer exclaimed 
The Americans do not 
from these engage- 




Lake Erie and the Surrounding Country 



after the battle of Lundy's Lane, 

know when they are beaten." Even 

ments nothing was gained beyond a display of courage, for 

the army was unable to advance farther into Canada. 

Perry's Victory on Lake Erie. — The most important object 
in the war on the Canadian frontier was the control of the 
Lakes — Erie, Ontario, and Champlain. They were the 
highways on which armies and supplies could be carried to 
the places where they were most needed. After the loss of 
Detroit the United States was particularly anxious to destroy 
the British fleet on Lake Erie. Captain Oliver Hazard Perry 
was entrusted with the task. It was necessary to build ships 
before the struggle could begin. Timber was at hand along 
the shore. Workmen were brought from Philadelphia. Iron 
was gathered from farm buildings and shops, and from every 
available source. Supplies were forwarded from neighboring 
settlements. Sails, ropes, guns, and ammunition had to be 
carried overland from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to Erie, 



VICTORIES OF PERRY AND MACDONOUGH 289 

where the little fleet 1 was being built. The ships were 
finally ready, and on September 10, 1813, Perry met the 
British squadron in battle near Put-in-Bay. The fighting 
was stubborn. Perry's flag-ship, the Lawrence, was riddled 
with shot and became unmanageable. Four-fifths of her 
crew were either killed or wounded. Perry, undaunted, 
entered a boat and was rowed to the Niagara in the midst of 
the battle. Soon the victory was his. He tore off the back 
of an old letter, and with his hat as a table, wrote the news 
to his superior, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours. 
Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." One 
of the results of the victory was the recovery of Detroit and 
Michigan Territory. 

Raid on Toronto, 18 13. — Some weeks before the battle on 
Lake Erie, an expedition dashed across Lake Ontario and 
took Toronto, or York as it was then named, the small capital 
of Upper Canada. Some naval stores and two small ships 
in the harbor were destroyed or captured. Soldiers acting 
without orders burned the house where the provincial assem- 
bly met. But the explosion of a powder magazine, near the 
American line of march, killed or wounded nearly 300 men 
and made the affair cost more than it was worth. 

Macdonough's Victory on Lake Champlain, 1814. — 
Every effort to conquer Canada had failed. In 18 14 it looked 
as if the tables would be turned and that the British would 
invade the United States. The war against Napoleon came 
to an end in April, 1814, and 16,000 of Wellington's veterans 
were sent to Canada. With 7,000 of these men Sir George 
Prevost, the Governor General of Canada, attempted an 
invasion by the same route that Burgoyne had taken thirty- 
seven years earlier. His land forces were accompanied by a 

1 Neither this fleet nor the fleet of Macdonough at Plattsburg would have 
been called "fleets" on the ocean. The largest British or American ship on 
the Lakes was not even so large as the Constitution. 



290 THE WAR OF 1812 

small flotilla on Lake Champlain. An American force occu- 
pied fortified lines at Plattsburg. On the lake a small fleet, 
under Commander Macdonough, was drawn up awaiting the 
British. After a desperate fight the British ships were cap- 
tured or dispersed. Prevost made a half-hearted attack on 
the American lines and then returned to Canada. 

The War on the Sea. — Neither the Americans nor the 
British permanently occupied any territory belonging to the 
other along the border between the United States and 
Canada. The war was not more decisive in other quarters. 
There could be no attempt by the Americans to oppose fleet 
to fleet on the ocean, for they did not possess a single 
ship-of-the-line. Their frigates and smaller vessels could be 
used only in attacking English commerce or in fighting sea- 
duels with ships of their own class. 

The English could spare ships enough to establish a strict 
blockade of the American coast. They boasted that they 
could do more. They declared that "not a sail, but by 
permission, spreads." They felt nothing but contempt for 
the little American fleet. All the greater was their chagrin 
when frigates like the Constitution and the Essex captured 
ship after ship in sea-duels. 

The "Constitution" and the " Guerriere." — Captain Isaac 
Hull, commander of the Constitution, and a nephew of the 
unfortunate General Hull, had scarcely left American waters 
on the coast of New Jersey in July, 181 2, when he was 
pursued by five English vessels. He put on all sail, but as 
the wind died down escape seemed impossible. Part of the 
time he had boats out towing his vessel. This the enemy 
could do as well. Then he kedged his ship, that -is, sent a boat 
a half-mile ahead with a light anchor and a rope attached. 
The boat dropped the anchor, and the crew on the Constitu- 
tion pulled on the rope until the ship was up with the anchor. 
In the meantime another boat had set another anchor. By 



NAVAL VICTORIES 



291 



such seamanship, for two days and three nights, he kept be- 
yond reach of the British guns, until finally a storm arose, 
which enabled the Constitution to escape. 

A few weeks later in the Gulf of St. Lawrence the Constitu- 
tion sighted the British frigate 



Guerriere, 1 and gave battle. 
The Constitution was the larg- 
er and better ship, but her 
principal advantage was in the 
skilful marksmanship of her 
gunners. After forty minutes 
the Guerriere lay a battered 
hulk. The Constitution was 
almost unharmed. 

The rejoicing in America 
was unbounded. Its tiny 
navy was proving of some 
value. And the joy was 
greater because the people 

hated the Guerriere for its share in searching American ves- 
sels along the coast before the war began. Nor was the 
Constitution, which the people affectionately called "Old 
Ironsides," 2 the only American ship to win fame. Several 
others fought successfully in one or more sea-duels. 

Exploits of the "Essex." — The Essex, one of the smallest 
frigates of the United States, built and given to the govern- 
ment by the patriotic citizens of Salem, captured ten prizes 
in the Atlantic, and then sailed around Cape Horn into the 
Pacific to prey on British commerce. Captain David Porter 




The " Constitution : 



1 Guerriere, a ship which the British had captured from the French. The 
name meant ' warrior." 

2 Holmes' poem on Old Ironsides was written when the government planned 
to destroy the old worn-out wooden ship. The plan was given up. The 
ship is now preserved in Charlestown Navy Yard. 



292 THE WAR OF 1812 

managed to provide his ship with supplies, war material, provi- 
sions, medicines, and even money to pay his officers and men, 
from the British ships that he captured. Once when his pris- 
oners outnumbered his own crew two to one and planned to 
seize the Essex, the timely warning of his young midshipman, 
David Farragut, saved him. 1 In the Pacific Captain Porter 
captured a dozen British whaling ships. Porter was finally, 
after a year and a half of successful fighting, caught on the 
shore of South America by a superior force, and the Essex 
was captured. 

The Blockade of the Atlantic Coast, 1813. — Long before 
Porter's eventful voyage had ended, the American coast was 
completely closed. A British squadron hovered in front of 
each important sea-port. Only a few ships like the Essex, 
and some privateers, were still playing the war game of hide 
and seek on distant seas and preying on England's widespread 
commerce. 2 In America almost all trade by sea had ceased. 
The exports and imports of 18 14 were one-seventh of what 
they had been in 18 10. Things like sugar and tea and coffee 
became so costly that only the rich could afford to buy them. 
The goods that the merchants expected to send abroad lay 
in port. The farmers found that part of the market for 
their crops was gone. 

The War Unpopular in New England. — The war had been 
unpopular in New England from the first. Many people 
believed it wrong because of the plan to conquer Canada. 
Others were angry at the loss of their foreign trade. The 
war became doubly unpopular with the rise of prices and the 
increase of taxes. Some leaders were misguided enough to 
talk of secession from the Union and of a separate peace with 

1 David Farragut, then only 11 years old, later became one of America's 
famous naval officers. 

2 About 1,300 English merchant vessels were captured during the war. 
American swift-sailing privateers made captures even along the English coast. 



THE BRITISH BURN WASHINGTON 



293 



England. The governors of several states did almost nothing 
to help Madison secure men and money. In 1814 Massa- 
chusetts withdrew its militia from the service of the United 
States and directed its movements as if it had been an in- 
dependent army in a foreign country. Traders even carried 
provisions to the British army on the Canadian frontier and 
to British vessels on the coast. 

The Burning of Washington, 1814. — The situation of the 
government was rendered still more distressing by a success- 




The Capitol after the Burning of Washington 

ful raid on Washington. No preparations had been made 
to defend the capital. Not a fort, or breastwork, or battery 
had been built. A force of 4,500 veterans, led by General 
Ross, who had served under Wellington in Spain, was sent in 
August to destroy Washington in retaliation for the burning 
of York the year before. He marched unchecked to the city, 
and burned the Capitol, the White House, and other buildings. 
President Madison and his Cabinet took refuge in Virginia. 

Attack on Baltimore. — A few days later General Ross 
attacked Baltimore. 1 But the citizens of Baltimore prepared 



1 During the bombardment Francis Scott Key of Baltimore went aboard the 
British fleet on an errand. He was detained throughout the battle, and watched 
anxiously the damage being done. The following morning, as he looked out 
from the British ship and saw the Stars and Stripes still waving, he wrote 
"The Star Spangled Banner." 



294 THE WAR OF 1812 

vigorously and thoroughly for their own defense. General 
Ross was killed in the attack of the land forces. All day, 
September 13, the fleet bombarded Fort McHenry at the 
entrance to the harbor, but the spirited resistance on land 
and at the fort discouraged the British. They withdrew, and 
soon left the Chesapeake altogether. 

Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815. — Two of the 
expeditions planned by the English government for 18 14 had 
already failed. The British, like the Americans, had found 
that the invasion of a foreign country is a most difficult 
matter. By the end of 18 14 both nations were weary of the 
costly and fruitless war and ready to make peace. On 
Christmas eve, 18 14, the representatives of England and 
the United States agreed to terms of peace at a meeting at 
Ghent in Belgium. It was February n, 1815, before the 
good news could be carried across the Atlantic to the United 
States. Just one week before this, on February 4, the 
Americans in Washington learned that a great battle, the 
greatest of the entire war, had been fought at New Orleans. 

General Pakenham, brother-in-law of Wellington, at the 
head of an army of 9,000 veteran soldiers, supported by a 
large fleet, attacked New Orleans. Andrew Jackson com- 
manded the line of defense. Nature aided Jackson's army. 
Swamps, canals, and the river divided the army of invasion 
and made it hard for its parts to work together. Besides, 
the British showed the same contempt for American marks- 
manship that their predecessors had at Bunker Hill, and 
charged straight across an open field against Jackson's Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee riflemen shooting from behind high 
breastworks. These frontiersmen, hunters, and Indian 
fighters struck the enemy down, said an eye-witness, 'like 
blades of grass beneath the scythe of the mower." An expe- 
rienced British officer described the fire as "the most mur- 
derous and destructive fire of all arms ever poured upon a 



RESULTS OF THE WAR 295 

column." The British left 700 dead on the field, among 
them General Pakenham. Their total losses were 2,600. 

Results of the War of 1812. — The treaty of peace settled 
none of the questions for which the two nations had gone to 
war. These had settled themselves before the war ended. 
When the greater war in Europe was over, England had no 
reason to press American seamen into service, nor had either 
England or France any reason to seize American goods. 
Fortunately the Napoleonic wars were the last great world 
struggle for a century. Wars did take place, but only two or 
three nations were dragged in. These wars were short and 
did not seriously disturb other peoples. Peace between the 
United States and Great Britain became more firm as each 
decade passed. 

Other Questions Settled. — Within a few years after the 
close of the war several important agreements were made by 
the two countries. In 18 17 they agreed to reduce the number 
of government ships on the Great Lakes, keeping only a few 
small vessels to enforce the laws about fishing. It was a fortu- 
nate arrangement, for it relieved both nations of great expense 
and removed the dangers which come from the presence of 
rival fleets in the same waters. The following year, chiefly 
through the efforts of John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of 
State, England agreed, as she had in 1783, to allow American 
fishermen to fish in the waters on the coast of Labrador and 
Newfoundland, and to dry on shore the fish they caught. 
This was a privilege of great value to New England fisher- 
men. At the same time the boundary from the Lake of the 
Woods to the Rocky Mountains was fixed at the forty-ninth 
parallel. Beyond the Rocky Mountains both nations claimed 
the whole of Oregon and agreed for a while to hold it as a 
common territory. 

The end of the War of 181 2, and the settlement of the other 
differences with England, left the American people free to turn 



296 THE WAR OF 181 2 

away from European affairs and to devote themselves 
mainly to the development of new industries and to the 
settlement of their vast interior lands. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What advantage had England in the war with the United States? What 
made her advantage less than it would have been at another time? 

2. What was the chief part of the plan of the United States for the war? 
Why were many Canadians opposed to the United States? 

3. What obstacles did Hull's expedition meet? What did the British 
gain in the first year of the war? Were the armies of the United States any 
more successful in invading Canada during 1813 and 1814? 

4. Describe Perry's victory on Lake Erie. Did the raid on Toronto benefit 
the United States? Why was Macdonough's victory important for the United 
States? 

5. Why could not the United States do as much on the high seas? Tell 
the stories of the Constitution and of the Essex. 

6. How did the blockade affect the United States? Why was the war 
unpopular? 

7. What veterans did England send to the United States? Describe the 
British expedition against Washington and Baltimore. What did the expedi- 
tion accomplish? 

8. What battle took place after the treaty of peace was agreed to? Why 
did Jackson defeat the British? 

9. Why were the causes of the war not settled in the treaty of peace? What 
important friendly agreements did the United States and Great Britain make 
soon after the War of 181 2? 

REVIEW EXERCISES 

1. Describe the migration of the loyalists to Canada during the Revolu- 
tion, and the effect on the conquest of Canada in 181 2. 

2. State the difficulties which the new republic had with other nations 
from 1783 to 1 8 14. 

3. State what friendly agreements the United States entered into with 
England in 1794, 1817, and 1818. 

4. Did the Revolution have the same effect on American foreign trade as 
did the War of 181 2? 

Important Dates: 

181 2. The war with England begins. 
1814. A treaty of peace ends the war. 



CHAPTER XXVI 



NEW WORK AND NEW ROUTES 

One Consequence of War. — The interruption of foreign 
trade by the Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts as well as 
by the War of 1812 forced Americans to supply most of their 
own needs. For several years they could not obtain the 
cottons, woolens, articles of iron and steel, and many other 
things which they had been accustomed to buy in England. 




Power Looms in an English Mill, 1820 

They, therefore, built more iron mills, set up more spinning 
machines, and wove more cloth. They used nine times as 
many bales of cotton in 18 15 as in 18 10. The number of 
spindles increased from 80,000 to 500,000. Merchants and 
shipowners, whose business was ruined by the war, began to 
build factories. In 1815 there were over 100 cotton mills 
within thirty miles of Providence, Rhode Island. Weaving, 
however, was still done on hand-looms. 



298 NEW WORK AND NEW ROUTES 

A Complete Mill. — In 1814 Francis Lowell, who had 
visited England in order to examine the power-looms, returned 
to the United States and succeeded in constructing similar 
machinery in a cotton factory in Waltham, Massachusetts. 
Lowell's factory differed from the English factories by bring- 
ing under one roof all the new machines for spinning, weaving, 
and finishing, so that they could be run by the same power. 
Other men built factories like Lowell's. The machinery was 
soon adapted to spinning, weaving, and finishing linen and 
woolen goods. While New England was the center of the 
new industries, many were located in other states. These 
factories, like the English mills, were generally run by water- 
power, but one in New York was run by a steam-engine. 

Iron, Steel, and Coal. — The multiplication of iron and 
steel mills increased the need of coal. The mining of bitumi- 
nous or soft coal had been carried on about Pittsburgh for 
nearly twenty years. Already the town was being described 
as a "smoky city." Among the inventions used there was a 
machine which would cut and head nails. The products of 
the mills of western Pennsylvania, including nails, hinges, 
locks, and tools of all kinds, were loaded on barges and floated 
down to New Orleans. Kettles also were sold to the sugar 
planters of Louisiana. 

The steel mills of eastern Pennsylvania and the other states 
on the coast had relied upon England for supplies of soft coal. 
Fortunately, when the war cut off their trade with England, a 
grate was invented which created draft enough to burn anthra- 
cite. Up to that time anthracite, called stone coal, had been 
regarded as worthless except as gravel for sidewalks. The 
mill owners now began to use it in melting iron ores. 

What Machines accomplished. — As mills were built and 
improved machines set up, the amount of work accomplished 
was increased enormously. For example, one person running 
a mule spinner which carried 3,000 spindles could spin as 



FROM HOUSEHOLD TO FACTORY 



299 



much thread as 3,000 women 40 or 50 years before. A 
weaver with a power-loom could make 1,600 yards of cotton 
cloth in a week, while he could make only 40 with a hand- 
loom. One consequence of the change was the rapid reduc- 
tion of prices. Cotton sheeting in 181 5 was 40 cents a yard, 
while fourteen years later it was 8| cents. Similar changes 
were going on in other manufactures where machines and new 
methods were introduced. 




Spinning Room in an American Mill, 1830 
From an old print 

From Household to Factory. — The transfer of industries 
from the household and the little shop, which had begun with 
the building of Slater's first mill and the invention of the 
cotton-gin, still went on slowly, but surely. The spinning- 
wheel, the hand-loom, and the household forge were used less 
and less and were finally abandoned. Within twenty or thirty 
years after the War of 181 2, home-made products gave way 
almost everywhere to articles made in mills and factories. 
If women and girls needed employment outside of the home, 
they must seek it in the mills. Indeed, they were the ones 
who ran the spinning frames and the looms, the men doing 
the heavier work about the mills. Although each machine 



3 oo NEW WORK AND NEW ROUTES 

did the work of many hands, no hand need long be without 
employment, because the mills were built so rapidly, increas- 
ing from four in 1805 to 795 in 183 1. What was true of 
the cotton industry was true also of other industries. The 
things which were produced found a ready sale, since the 
prices were lower, and people used larger quantities. More- 
over, the population was growing rapidly, and new markets 
were being opened every day. 

More Workers needed. — The demand for wool, flax, 
cotton, coal, and iron gave chances of work everywhere to 
willing hands. The mills called the young men and women 
to the towns. The farms and fields called other young men 
and women almost as loudly, for the townspeople must be 
fed, the sheep must be cared for, and the cotton and flax 
raised. The new work made many opportunities for immi- 
grants. Their number soon began to increase greatly. 
k The need of more workers had one unfortunate conse- 
quence. Cotton growing required a very large number of the 
cheapest or least skilled laborers. The increased demand 
for cotton, therefore, fixed on the southern plantations more 
firmly than ever another sort of labor — that of slaves. 1 

English Manufacturers and the American Market. — When 
peace came the English manufacturers tried to regain the trade 
with the United States which the war had cut off. They 
saw that American manufacturers had taken their places in 
making goods for American purchasers, and they now resolved 
to sell their goods at such low prices as to ruin the business 
of the American manufacturers. A prominent member of 
parliament explained that it was well worth while to incur a 
loss on the first exportation in order to stifle in the cradle 

1 Several states forbade the importation of slaves, and in 1807 Congress 
also tried to put a stop to the slave-trade. So great, however, was the 
demand for slaves on the plantations, that the government could not always 
enforce the laws which prohibited the bringing of slaves into the United States. 



THE AMERICAN MARKET 



301 



those rising manufactures in the United States." This plan 
partly accounts for the enormous sales to American mer- 
chants in 1816. American imports in that year were valued 
at $147,000,000, while during the last year of the war they 
were worth only $13,000,000. 

The new or "infant" industries of the United States were 
threatened with ruin. The eastern iron works were obliged 
to shut down. The Pittsburgh mills could go on, because the 
cost of sending English goods across the mountains raised 
their price. The cotton and woolen factories of the East 
were also in danger. In their distress the mill owners peti- 
tioned Congress for more " protection." Congress accordingly 
passed the Tariff of 1816, which raised the rates provided in 
the earlier tariffs and added duties on goods which had not 
been "protected." 

While the English wished to sell their manufactures to the 
Americans, they did not wish to buy grain of the Americans. 
In 181 5 the English parliament passed new "corn" or grain 
laws, preventing the importation of grain until the price of 
English grain was $2.50 a bushel. Each country arranged 
its tariff with the aim of selling to its neighbors without being 
obliged to buy from them. They were all "protectionists." 
In the Tariff of 1816, therefore, Congress did what the legis- 
latures or royal councils of Great Britain and all European 
countries were doing. 

Need for Roads and Canals. — With the increase of manu- 
factures and trade and the rapid advance of the population 
into the Mississippi Valley, Americans felt the need of more 
roads and bridges and canals, and, in fact, of every possible 
means of communication. The problem was difficult, because 
the new states could not raise great sums of money by taxa- 
tion, and the United States at the time was loaded down 
with war debts. The western farmers were willing to have 
the government protect the manufacturers with the tariff, 



302 



NEW WORK AND NEW ROUTES 



if it would in turn build roads and canals over which 
they could afford to send their products to the coast in ex- 
change for the goods that they needed on the frontier. This 
was the reason why the people demanded that the govern- 
ment undertake "internal improvements." 

The Invention of the Steamboat; Robert Fulton. — For 
twenty years men had been trying to plan a boat which 
could use Watt's steam-engine as its motive power. In 1807 

Robert Fulton, the 
son of an Irish im- 
migrant, built the 
Clermont, on which 
he fitted up a 
steam-engine to 
run a pair of side- 
wheels. His neigh- 
bors called it " Ful- 
ton's Folly," but 
to their astonish- 
ment it started off 
and plowed its way up the Hudson River. It reached 
Albany, 150 miles away, in 32 hours. Such a journey 
proved that Fulton's invention was a success. The next 
year the Clermont made the voyage on the Hudson regu- 
larly two or three times a week. 

Steamboats soon came into general use. In 181 1 one built 
in Pittsburgh made the long voyage down the Ohio and 
the Mississippi to New Orleans. Four years later, in 18 15, 
another succeeded in making the voyage up-stream against 
the strong current. It then required 25 days to go from 
New Orleans to Louisville. In 18 19 steamboats ascended 
the swifter current of the Missouri River far on the route of 
Lewis and Clark. In 1819, also, the Savannah, using both 
sails and steam-engine, crossed the Atlantic Ocean. 




The "Clermont" 
After an old print 



INVENTION OF THE STEAMBOAT 303 

From this time on steamboats multiplied rapidly, espe- 
cially in the West. Twenty-one were built on the Ohio River 
in 18 1 9. A year later there were 71 on the Ohio, the Mis- 
sissippi, and the other western rivers. As yet only four 




The "Savannah" 
The first steamship that crossed the Atlantic 

steamboats had been built on the Great Lakes. Travel, 
emigration, and trade had not begun to follow that route. 

Advantages of the River Towns. — With an ocean port at 
New Orleans the towns on the rivers of the Mississippi Valley 
had a great advantage over the settlements on the shores 
of the Lakes. These northern settlements were difficult to 
reach, for the St. Lawrence Valley was in the hands of the 
British. Chicago and Milwaukee were still mere stations for 
fur traders. Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo were only 
villages. The region from the Mohawk Valley to the east- 
ern end of Lake Erie was a wilderness. 

The river towns, on the other hand, were on the great high- 
ways from the East to the West and from the northern West 
to the Gulf of Mexico. The steamboat shortened the dis- 
tances. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis 
became large and prosperous trading centers. To St. Louis 
were brought the furs of the new Northwest. Louisville was 
the market for Kentucky tobacco and hemp. At Cincinnati 



304 NEW WORK AND NEW ROUTES 

a flourishing meat-packing business was established. Until 
the War of 1812, droves of 4,000 or 5,000 hogs had been 
driven across the mountains to Philadelphia and Baltimore, 
feeding on the nuts and acorns of the forests by the way. 
Now cattle and hogs were kept on the feeding-grounds of 
Ohio until they were ready for the packers of Cincinnati. 
New Orleans was the port where most of the products of 
the West were marketed. 




A Toll-Gate and Bridge 

Turnpikes and Bridges. — In the West, wagon roads were 
almost unknown except in a few older settlements. The old 
Indian trails were used, but few travelers tried to go far from 
the rivers. In the East, the local governments and private 
companies had built many paved roads or turnpikes, stretch- 
ing out from the chief towns like the spokes of a wheel. 
Toll-gates were placed at frequent intervals to take toll from 
the traveler in order to pay the cost of repairs and a profit 
to the builders. The old fords along the way were bridged 
with stone arches and the swamps crossed by logs or planks 
laid side by side. 1 

The National Road, 1818. — Neither local governments 
nor private companies could undertake the costly enterprise 
of a road across the mountains. Eastern merchants were 

1 A Scotch engineer, Macadam, had already shown how to build solid, well- 
drained roads. His plans were followed by American road-builders. 



THE NATIONAL ROAD 



305 



alarmed at the advantage which the steamboat gave to their 
rivals at New Orleans. It cost much more to send goods 
over the mountains than from New Orleans. Besides, states- 
men of the day were afraid that the loose-jointed republic 
would break apart at the mountains. 

George Washington had taken an interest in a great wagon 
road across the Alleghanies and had repeatedly urged that 
one should be built. In 1818 Congress finally carried out 
Washington's plan, even following the trail that he had blazed 




Route of the National Road, 1812-1840 



for a part of the way. In 1818 the National Road, carefully 
graded and covered with crushed stone, reached from Cum- 
berland on the Potomac to Wheeling on the Ohio, and was 
later extended westward as far as Vandalia, in Illinois. 

Stage Coaches. — The new roads, and especially the 
National Road, made it easier for emigrants to reach the 
West, and cheaper for merchants to transport their goods. 
Better roads were followed by finer and swifter stage-coaches 
for the traveler. Daily stage-coaches set out for the West or 
ran between the main towns. People at that time marveled 
at their swiftness. They now made the journey from Boston 
to New York in two days, and from New York to Philadelphia 
in fifteen hours. The government mail coaches, by running 
day and night on the new National Road, made the journey 
from Cumberland to Wheeling in exactly twenty-four hours. 
Travelers in the ordinary passenger coaches could not go 
so rapidly. Six days was the usual time from Philadelphia 



306 



NEW WORK AND NEW ROUTES 



to Pittsburgh. Horses were changed every few miles, and 
the drivers boasted that the change was made before the 
coach stopped rocking. Freight was carried between dis- 
tant cities by large Conestoga wagons, each drawn by six 
powerful horses. 1 

Erie Canal, 1825. — The building of the National Road 
helped the ports of Philadelphia and Baltimore far more 




Conestoga" Wagon for carrying Freight 



than New York. It also increased the advantage which the 
river towns of the West possessed over the settlements along 
the shores of the Lakes. De Witt Clinton and other public- 
spirited men resolved to guard the future of New York City, 
open western New York state, and gain a route to the Lakes, 
and through them to the Northwest. 

With such objects in mind Clinton persuaded the legislature 
of New York to raise the money for a canal from Albany to 
Buffalo. To build a "big ditch," as Clinton's enemies called 
it, 360 miles long, by means of spades and wheel-barrows, 
seemed a wild scheme, but the plan won the support of the peo- 
ple and, in 1825, after eight years of work, it was completed. 

1 The name " Conestoga " was given because they were first used by the 
thrifty farmers in the valley of the Conestoga River, in eastern Pennsylvania, 
for carrying their farm products to market. 



CANALS 



307 



It was a great event for New York City, and for the people 
along the way, but most of all for the people of the West. 
It had formerly cost them $32 a ton to send their freight 
100 miles by wagon. The canal carried the same load for $1. 
A stream of emigrants began to move by the canal into the 
region on the Lakes. They were as certain to find a good 
market for their products as the farmers on the rivers. 



L A KrEs?01N=T-ArR. I O 




Map of the Erie Canal 

Other Canals. — Ohio, encouraged by the example of New 
York, built a system of canals connecting the Ohio River and 
Lake Erie. Ports like Cleveland became distributing cen- 
ters for products from the East, brought by the Erie Canal 
and Lake Erie. The farm products of Ohio and northern 
Indiana were forwarded to the East from these ports. 
Steamboats were multiplied on the Lakes as they had been 
multiplied on the western rivers. 

Philadelphia was alarmed by the success of the Erie Canal 
and attempted to rival it by building a canal to Pittsburgh. 
Part of the way the freight was hauled across the mountains, 
being pulled up and let down inclined railways by stationary 
engines placed at the highest point. 



308 NEW WORK AND NEW ROUTES 

Every state now wanted a net-work of canals to reach dis- 
tricts far from rivers and lakes. Congress gave liberally to 
aid some of these projects, offering large sections of the 
public lands, by the sale of which the needed money might 
be furnished. 







A Canal Passenger Packet 

Union of East and West. — These new routes of travel and 
trade not only enriched the settlements along the way, the 
merchants on the coast, and the farmers of the Mississippi 
Valley, but they strengthened the bonds of union between 
the West and the East. Washington's hope was finally 
realized. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What was the effect of the interruption of foreign trade? What inven- 
tion was introduced into the United States as a consequence? How did the 
American factories differ from the English? 

2. What changes took place in the iron and steel industry? 

3. How did the new machinery affect the amount of work done by 
laborers? The price of goods? The classes of laborers? The demand for 
slaves? 

4. How did the English manufacturers try to ruin their American rivals? 
Why were the Pittsburgh mills not injured? How did Congress help the 
manufacturers? What was the aim of the various nations in arranging their 
tariffs? 

5. What gave rise to demands for better means for traveling and carry- 
ing freight? Why was the problem a difficult one? Why did the western 
farmers expect the United States to build roads and canals? 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 



309 



6. Why was Fulton's invention timely? Where did steamboats find a 
great work to do? 

7. Why did the river towns of the West have an advantage over those on 
the shores of the Great Lakes? How did New Orleans, St. Louis, Louisville, 
and Cincinnati obtain a leadership in trade? 

8. How did many places secure roads and bridges? Why were the people 
of the East anxious to have a road across the Alleghany Mountains? How was 
the National Road built? What useful purpose did it serve when completed? 
What improvements were made in the stage-coach lines? 

9. What cities did the National Road help the most? What did De Witt 
Clinton persuade New York to do? Why was his "big ditch" a great under- 
taking? 

10. What were some of the results of building the Erie Canal? What other 
canals were soon built? What effect had these canals? 

EXERCISES 

1. Are there any occupations of the home to-day being crowded out by 
inventions and new business methods? 

2. Which countries to-day have a "protective" tariff and which do not? 

3. Find out why some cities have grown more prosperous than others. 

4. If there is an old canal in the neighborhood, learn about its history. 

Important Dates: 

1807. Robert Fulton invents a steamboat. 

18 14. Francis Lowell introduces the power-loom and the new kind of 

factories into the United States. 
1818. The National Road is completed from Cumberland to Wheeling. 
^825. The Erie Canal is finished from Albany to Buffalo. 




An Old Time Stage-Coach 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE MARCH OF POPULATION WESTWARD 

Immigration after the War. — The same years which saw 
the growth of American manufactures and the opening of 
new routes for trade and travel, saw a great tide of immigra- 
tion coming toward the shores of America, and especially 
toward the fertile regions of the Mississippi Valley. They 
saw also an important extension of American territory and 
influence. 

From the close of the Revolution to the end of the War of 
1812, that is from 1783 to 181 5, comparatively few came to 
America. The great wars kept men from leaving Europe, 
drawing them into armies or navies or into the employments 
which war creates. With the return of peace in 18 15, the 
tide of immigration set in again. It was small at first, ten or 
twelve thousand a year, but the number steadily increased. 

Not only did the opportunities in America attract immi- 
grants, but poor people found it hard to make a living in 
Europe. The wars left a heavy burden of taxation. Sol- 
diers and sailors, dismissed from the armies and out of work, 
crowded every occupation. Wages were very low. The 
peasant farmers, in Germany especially, found that they 
must still pay dues to the nobles. 

The immigrants of this period were mostly from England 
and Ireland, although a few came from Germany. The Irish 
were chiefly peasants, but in the United States most of them 
worked in factories or did the hard out-door work of the coast 
towns. Englishmen who understood a trade quickly found 
employment in similar trades. Many English and German 



THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT AFTER 1812 311 

immigrants were farmers and were eager to obtain land, in 
the West. 

The Westward Movement after the War of 1812. — 
Besides the new immigrants from Europe who sought lands 
in the West, many people moved from the older settlements. 
A European traveler in 181 7 says that on the roads leading 
across the mountains he was seldom out of sight of family 
groups. Each was traveling as its means permitted. Some 
went in stage-coaches or their own covered wagons. Many 




t_. 







Scene on the Ohio River 
The main highway of the early West 

times whole families, because of poverty, set out on foot, 
carrying on their backs or on a light wagon, dragged along by 
the father and sons, the few articles which they would need 
on the way. 

The blockade of the Atlantic coast during the last year of 
the War of 181 2 made earning a living so hard that many 
started for the lands which Congress offered for sale in the 
Mississippi Valley. Consequently the movement of people 
toward the frontier had never ceased. After the war closed, 
it became so great that certain eastern towns were alarmed, 
fearing that they would lose their inhabitants. 

New Frontiers. — By this time the frontier had moved 
still farther westward. Indiana and Illinois in the North- 



I 

312 THE MARCH OF POPULATION WESTWARD 

west, and Alabama and Mississippi in the Southwest, were 
most often the goal of the land seekers. The lands on the 
Missouri were occupied by the vanguard of the "army." In 
182 1 Congress reduced the price of the land from $2.00 to 
$1.25 an acre, so that a thrifty man could soon save enough 
to buy a farm. The majority of the settlers on the new 
frontiers were poor, and some of them did not trouble them- 
selves to obtain a right to the soil. They ''squatted" on 




Chicago in 1820 
From an old print 

lands far from settlements, hoping to remain undisturbed 
until they earned enough to buy the land. 

New States. — The rivers were the highways to the West 
until the Erie Canal was opened. People who intended to 
settle in Indiana or Illinois commonly traveled to the Ohio 
River and floated down or took a steamboat to the village 
nearest the lands they expected to purchase. The result was 
that the southern part of these territories was settled first. 
Another reason for this was that many of the settlers came from 
Kentucky and Tennessee. Many Kentuckians and Tennes- 
seans also moved south into Mississippi and Alabama. These 
western territories grew so rapidly that four of them were 



LIFE OF THE SETTLER 



3i3 




soon admitted into the Union; Indiana in 18 16, Mississippi 
in 18 1 7, Illinois in 18 18, and Alabama in 18 19. Louisiana 
had become a state in 181 2. 

The Lincolns and Davises as Pioneers. — The story of 
Abraham Lincoln and of Jefferson Davis tells something of 
the two streams of pioneers. Both were born in Kentucky- 
near the center of the state, 
Lincoln in 1809 and Davis 
in 1808. Lincoln's father 
took his family to Indiana, 
but soon moved on into 
Illinois. The Davises went 
to Louisiana, only to leave 
almost immediately for the '" * . '- ->• *t .-~*<^. ; - 

newer settlements in Mis- Log-Cabin in which Abraham 

Lincoln was born 
sissippi. 

Life of the Settler. — In the new region young Lincoln 
lived the life of the frontier boy. He watched his father 
build a one-room log-cabin, which was left for a long time with- 
out a floor or a door, watched him make the rude furniture 
from rough slabs of wood, and clear the first patches of ground 
for corn and potatoes. He learned the simple pursuits of 
the farm boy — to drive the team, to handle the rude plow, 
to cut wheat with a sickle and thresh it with a flail, and finally 
fan and clean it in the wind. Most of the time the boy spent 
in clearing fields or splitting the rails used in making the zig- 
zag or worm fences. When there was nothing to be done at 
home, he worked for a neighboring settler, earning his "keep" 
and 25 cents a day. 

Life in the West in Lincoln's boyhood was almost the same 
as it had been on each new frontier since the founding of 
Jamestown. The opportunity to obtain an education was 
small. If the settlers could afford it, they started a school 
and hired a teacher. Lincoln called such schools, "ABC 



3H THE MARCH OF POPULATION WESTWARD 






schools." Court-houses and churches were as rare as school 
buildings. Judges and lawyers rode on horseback from 
settlement to settlement, deciding cases sometimes in a log- 
cabin, sometimes in a tavern. The preacher also rode from 
church to church. 

An ambitious boy, like Lincoln, turned from one thing to 

another, each a 
step higher than 
the last. Lincoln 
became a store- 
keeper, post-mas- 
g^ftgrf 'fcVS: ter, road super- 
_^3S| fcyii v l s ° r > lawyer, 
and finally a law- 
maker. The great 
office that he was 
to hold in 1861 
was still in the dis- 
tant future. Not every western boy had the character and 
abilities of Lincoln, but each had an opportunity to show 
what was in him. 

A Cotton Plantation of Mississippi. — The story of Jeffer- 
son Davis is also interesting. His father was a successful 
frontier cotton planter. Young Davis was sent to eastern 
schools for an education. After a brief career in the army, 
he became a Mississippi cotton planter, and finally, like 
Lincoln, a political leader. 

In one respect the southern frontier differed greatly from 
the northern. The demand for cotton was so great that the 
new lands were divided into large plantations rather than 
small farms. The cotton planters who migrated from the 
older communities on the eastern coast or in Tennessee and 
Kentucky, brought their slave laborers with them. As in 
the older settlements in the Carolinas, some of the slaves 



Grinding Corn on the Frontier 



LIFE IN THE SOUTH 



315 




became carpenters, bricklayers, and blacksmiths, and per- 
formed such work on the plantations. The more intelligent 
and trustworthy were kept as house-servants and drivers. 
The others — ■ men, women, and older children — were sent 
to the fields. Clearing the land, planting, hoeing, picking, 
ginning, and baling 
cotton, and haul- 
ing it to market 
furnished work for 
many laborers all 
the year round. 
There were few 
days in so warm a 
climate when out 
door work could 
not be done. A 
bell in the yard 
summoned the 
slave gangs to 
work at sunrise, and the day ended at sundown. Food was 
given to them from the common storeroom. White over- 
seers and trusty negroes directed the work. 

Three things made the plantation system successful: (1) 
cheap and fertile land, (2) slave labor at moderate cost, and 
(3) a steady market for cotton in the North and in Europe. 
Farmers who had been accustomed to do their own work were 
able from the great profits of their cotton to buy slaves and 
So become planters. Fabulous stories were told in the East 
of the riches gained from planting cotton in the deep fertile 
soil of the Mississippi Valley. A multitude of emigrants 
from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia — planters and com- 
mon farmers — abandoned worn-out or less productive lands 
for the new frontier. 

Two Streams of Migration meet in Missouri. — The two 



Negro Quarters 
From an old print 



316 THE MARCH OF POPULATION WESTWARD 

streams of migration, the northern and southern, in the cease- 
less search for better land, did not stop with the Mississippi. 
Both came together in Missouri, where planter and free 
farmer mingled. By 182 1 a few of the more adventurous 
frontiersmen went on, even beyond the boundaries of the 
United States, to the Spanish lands in Texas. 

The Missouri Compromise. — In 1820 Missouri asked to 
be admitted as a state. This raised a new question. Should 
the states formed from the Louisiana Purchase be admitted 
into the Union as states in which slavery should be allowed 
or in which it should be prohibited? It happened that in 
11 of the 22 states, slaves formed the main body of laborers 
and that in the other 1 1 there were either very few slaves, as 
in Pennsylvania, or none at all, as in Massachusetts. Opinion 
in the Senate was evenly divided, 11 states on each side, 
though in the House of Representatives the group which 
wished to stop the spread of slavery had a majority. Which- 
ever group should win a new state would of course gain two 
votes in the Senate. The dispute was finally settled on this 
occasion by a famous bargain. 

The Maine settlers, whose territory had long been a part of 
Massachusetts, wished to enter the Union as a separate state, 
and to do so without allowing slavery. The majority of the 
people of Missouri, on the other hand, desired to make slav- 
ery legal within their own boundaries. Henry Clay suggested 
that the whole matter be settled by allowing Maine and Mis- 
souri to have their way. This would keep the two factions 
in the Senate equal, twelve states belonging to each. As 
for the rest of the Louisiana Territory, except Louisiana and 
Missouri, slavery should be forbidden in all that portion 
north of the parallel of 36 30'. Nothing was said about the 
portion south of the line, but it was intended that it should 
be open to settlers with slaves. 

The Missouri Compromise, as the bargain was called, was 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 



3 J 7 




318 THE MARCH OF POPULATION WESTWARD 

really a victory for those who wished to exclude slavery 
from the territories. Nine-tenths of Louisiana Territory 
lay north of 36 30'. 

The Purchase of Florida, 1819. — In 1819 a large extension 
of territory where slavery was already recognized partly com- 
pensated the South for what it lost by the Missouri Com- 
promise. Ever since the purchase of Louisiana in 1803 the 
United States had tried to buy Florida from Spain. Finally, 
in 1819, an agreement was reached, and the United States 
purchased the whole territory of Florida for about $5,000,000. 
The United States agreed at the same time not to claim that 
Texas was a part of the old Louisiana Purchase; that is, to 
regard the Sabine River as the boundary between its own 
territory and Mexico. The purchase meant that the people 
of the South possessed the river courses over which their 
commerce travelled to the sea. Andrew Jackson had a short 
time before conquered the Creek Indians in the southwestern 
part of Georgia and opened the lands to settlement. 

Revolution in the Spanish Colonies. — Spain was the more 
ready to give up Florida as she was fighting hard to keep 
control of her colonies in Mexico and South America. Rebel- 
lion had broken out in those colonies when Napoleon de- 
clared his brother king of Spain. After the restoration of 
Ferdinand VII, whom Napoleon had held a prisoner, the 
colonists hoped that they would receive more rights in return 
for their loyalty. The Spanish government, however, was un- 
willing to grant to the colonists the privileges that the Eng- 
lish colonists had enjoyed before the War of Independence. 

The result was new revolutionary outbreaks, especially in 
the region of the La Plata River, now called the Argen- 
tine Republic, and in northern South America, now divided 
between the United States of Colombia, Venezuela, and 
Ecuador. The hero of the south was San Martin, the hero 
of the north Simon Bolivar. The story of San Martin's 



RELATIONS WITH OTHER NATIONS 319 

passage of the Andes to free Chili reads like Hannibal's march 
across the Alps two thousand years before. A still finer story 
tells how at the moment of triumph the liberator of the Argen- 
tine, Chili, and Peru laid down his office in order not to offend 
Bolivar, his more ambitious rival, who had just reached Peru. 
The last victory over Spain, making independence certain, 
was won at Ayacucho on December 9, 1824. 

By this time, also, Mexico and the Central American states 
had won their independence. All that were left to Spain of 
her great colonial empire were Cuba, Porto Rico, and the 
Philippine Islands. What a change had taken place within 
50 years! In 1775 North and South America were princi- 
pally made up of English and Spanish colonies. By 1825 
these colonies had been transformed into republics, preserv- 
ing the civilization which their settlers had learned from the 
European world, but free to manage their own affairs and guard 
their own interests. 

The Last Resource of Spain. — In 1823 Ferdinand VII 
of Spain had hoped that the governments of France, Prussia, 
Austria, and Russia would interfere before it was too late, 
and save his colonies in America. The European monarchs 
and their advisers remembered so vividly the French Revo- 
lution, and all that they had suffered from the Revolution- 
ary and Napoleonic armies, that they were anxious to put 
down revolution everywhere. The possibility that European 
governments would send an expedition across the Atlantic 
excited the people of the United States. Fortunately the Eng- 
lish were also opposed to such an attempt, chiefly because 
they enjoyed a thriving trade with the new republics, which 
they would lose if Ferdinand recovered his authority over 
his rebellious colonies. 

Another danger seemed to threaten the Americans. While 
the English had been occupied in exploring and settling Amer- 
ica, the Russians had advanced across Siberia, making scat- 



320 THE MARCH OF POPULATION WESTWARD 



tered settlements as they went. They finally reached and 
crossed Bering Strait and moved down the western coast of 
North America, eager to gain the fur trade of the far North- 
west. They claimed a part of the Oregon country and might 
compel Spain to grant them California in return for help in 
reconquering the Spanish colonies. 

Just then, George Canning, one of the chief ministers of 

England, suggested that England 
and the United States join in a 
declaration "in the face of the 
world" that they would oppose 
the plans of the European mon- 
archs for the reconquest of Span- 
ish America. James Monroe was 
President of the United States, 
having been elected, practically 
without opposition, in 1817 and 
again in 182 1. John Quincy 
Adams, his Secretary of State, 
urged that the United States 
make its declaration separately, rather than come in as a 
cock -boat in the wake of a British man-of-war." His opinion 
was adopted by the President. 

The Monroe Doctrine, 1823. — Canning sent word to 
France that Great Britain would oppose any plan to subdue 
Spanish America. This made the plan impossible, for Great 
Britain controlled the sea as completely as she had after 
Nelson's great victory in 1805. When Congress met in 
December, Monroe made the American declaration, which 
showed the European schemers that they would find diffi- 
culties on the land, even if they succeeded in crossing the sea. 
He said that the United States would resist any attempt to 
oppress or change the government of any free republic in 
America. He also said, with the Russians in mind, that the 




James Monroe 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 321 

American continents were no longer open for colonization by 
any European governments. He did not intend, however, to 
meddle with any European colonies which, like Canada, were 
still left on this side of the Atlantic. Spain was soon obliged 
to acknowledge the independence of the Spanish American 
republics, and Russia agreed in 1824 not to extend her Alas- 
kan territories south of the parallel 54 40'. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why were there few immigrants to the United States from 1783 to 1815? 
Why did more come after 1815? From what part of Europe did they come? 
What did the new-comers find to do in the United States? 

2. What two classes of settlers sought lands in the West? How did 
travelers reach the West? Where was the frontier at this time? In what 
two ways did settlers obtain lands? Why did immigrants settle the southern 
part of Indiana and Illinois before the northern? What new states were 
admitted soon after the War of 181 2? 

3. What were the chief occupations of frontiersmen like Abraham Lincoln 
and Jefferson Davis? How did lawyers, judges, and preachers reach their 
work? 

4. In what way did the southern frontier differ from the northern? What 
kinds of work did the slaves perform? What things made the plantation system 
successful? Why did many planters of the older states go to the new fron- 
tier? Where did the two streams of western migration meet? What region 
beyond the United States were the hardiest frontiersmen beginning to enter? 

5. What new question was raised by the effort of Missouri to be admitted 
as a state? Why were there differences of opinion about this? How was the 
question finally settled? Which gained an advantage by the Missouri Com- 
promise, the North or the South? 

6. What new territory partly compensated the South for the disadvantage 
of the Missouri Compromise? How was Florida secured? What arrangement 
was made about the western boundary of Louisiana? Why were the Missis- 
sippi Valley states very anxious to have Florida annexed? 

7. What conditions in South America made Spain ready to sell Florida? 
Why did the Spanish colonies revolt? Who were the leaders in their war of 
independence? Which gained their independence? Which did not? 

8. What plan did the king of Spain form for regaining his lost colonies? 
What was Russia trying to do at the same time? Why did these schemes alarm 
the United States? How did George Canning propose to prevent the reconquest 
of the Spanish colonies? Why did Adams dislike Canning's plan? What 
steps did Canning take for England and Monroe for the United States? Why 



322 THE MARCH OF POPULATION WESTWARD 

would it have been impossible for the European nations to help Spain recon- 
quer its colonies? 

a. What did Monroe say the United States would resist? What did he 
declare about colonization of the American continents? What agreement did 
the United States make with Russia in 1824? 



EXERCISES 

1. Review the four great movements in American history taking place 
after the War of 181 2 which are described in Chapters XXVI and XXVII. 

2. How does a territory become a state in the United States? 

3. Write about the early life of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis. A 
list of books, which give fuller accounts of the life of each, will be found on 
page xxvi of the Appendix (References for Teachers). 

4. If the grandparents or great grandparents of any of the members of the 
class were pioneers at this time, such members should write a paper telling the 
story of their relatives. 

5. Which was of the greater value — the help that France gave the United 
States in the Revolution, or the help that England and the United States gave 
the Spanish American Republics in 1823? 

6. Monroe declared in the Monroe Doctrine that the colonization of the 
American continents was at an end. When did the colonization of the Amer- 
icas begin? 

Important Dates : 

1809. February 12, birth of Abraham Lincoln. 

1819. Florida purchased from Spain. 

1820. The Missouri Compromise adopted by Congress. 

1823. President Monroe announces the so-called Monroe Doctrine. 





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CHAPTER XXVIII 

GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE 

Changes in Government. — Changes in the method of mak- 
ing articles, better ways of carrying them from place to place, 
the growth of cities, and the rapid increase in the population 
of the Mississippi Valley were not the only events of the 
period. Important changes occurred in the political life of 
the people. The idea that "all men are equal" affected 
more then ever the manner of governing states and nation. 
The older families from which had been drawn the leaders 
in colonial times and in the early days of the Republic were 
no longer preferred in elections and appointments. 

The Right to Vote. — When Washington became President, 
scarcely one-fourth of the men were allowed to vote at elec- 
tions. Voters and office-holders had to be owners of prop- 
erty, usually of land. Even Franklin said that men who had 
no land should not vote. In England the right to vote 
had gone with ownership of land. The colonies had adopted 
the same practice, and the framers of the first state govern- 
ments continued it. But in the new states, whether Ver- 
mont east of the Alleghanies, or Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, 
Indiana, and the others in the Mississippi Valley, the settlers 
were very much alike and were willing to treat one another 
so. They quickly changed the notions that they had held 
in the older communities. The idea of a privileged class of 
persons seemed as foolish as a hereditary nobility or as kings 
by divine right. These states, accordingly, permitted all men 
to vote and hold office. 



324 GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE 

The eastern states were obliged to make the same change, 
otherwise the stream of emigration to the West would have 
been even greater. The change was not accomplished with- 
out long debates and many elections, for the older leaders 
prophesied all sorts of terrible consequences. A few states 
clung to some of the established rules, Rhode Island for 
example, insisting that only owners of property should vote. 

Religious Liberty. — Another change, which naturally 
accompanied manhood suffrage, was the grant of complete 
religious liberty. Massachusetts ceased to compel all tax- 
payers to support the Congregational Church. In South 
Carolina, Roman Catholics gained the right to vote. These 
are but two illustrations of a change which was general. 

"Down with King Caucus." — The spirit of equality or 
democracy attacked still other customs. Candidates for the 
Presidency had been nominated by the members of Con- 
gress, those who belonged to each political party meeting in 
what was called a caucus. The custom gave to Congress- 
men an important privilege, and as they often held their 
places for long periods, a few men had a large influence in 
making presidents. A loud outcry was, therefore, raised 
against " King Caucus." 

Many people wished to vote directly for their candidates, 
instead of voting for electors. Thomas H. Benton, a senator 
from Missouri, urged such a change. Several amendments to 
the Constitution were offered, but the plan failed. Two-thirds 
of the members of both houses of Congress and three-fourths 
of the states must consent to an amendment, and Benton was 
not able to secure the approval of so large a majority. 

The reformers, however, gradually brought about two 
changes: (i) that the people should vote directly for electors 
instead of leaving their appointment to the legislatures of the 
states, as had usually been the rule; and (2) that the nomi- 
nation should be made by a convention of delegates from the 



ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JACKSON 325 



states. It was already understood that the electors must 
vote for the person named by the caucus or convention. 1 In 
1824 one of the candidates for President was selected by a 
caucus of members of Congress, but that was the last time. 
For a few years a mixed system went on — sometimes the 
nomination was the work of state legislatures, sometimes a 
convention of delegates within the several states. Finally, 
in 1832, great national conventions met for the purpose of 
putting candidates before the country. 

The people soon discovered that the overthrow of "King 
Caucus" had not gained for them a greater share in the selec- 
tion of presidents. They had merely handed power to a new 
set of masters, the party managers or "bosses." 2 Calhoun 
thought that the people had 
lost by the change and that 
the "bosses" were worse than 
the Congressmen. At least 
one good result came from the 
long discussion of methods of 
nominating and electing presi- 
dents: the people began to 
think the office the most im- 
portant in the Republic. 

Andrew Jackson's Election, 
1828. — One reason why the 
common people began to feel 
so high regard for the office in 1830. 
was that Andrew Jackson, 
their idol, was chosen President in 1828. Jackson was born 
on the frontier in North Carolina. His parents were Scotch- 




Andrew Jackson 
Age 63. After the portrait 
by R. W. Earl 



1 The framers of the Constitution intended that the electors should choose 
the President, and not merely record the wishes of the voters of their states. 

2 Sometimes the party managers or " bosses " were private citizens, some- 
times they were local office-holders or members of Congress. 



326 



GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE 



Irish. Like all boys on the frontier, he received little school- 
ing. Later he studied law and crossed the mountains to 
Nashville, then a small village. When Tennessee was ad- 
mitted to the Union in 1796, Jackson was chosen its first 
representative in Congress. To reach Philadelphia he was 
obliged to ride on horse-back 800 miles, most of the way 

through an un- 
settled wilderness. 
His life since then 
had been spent 
chiefly in the army, 
where he became 
skilful in frontier 
fighting. The vic- 
tory of New Or- 
leans had made 







Birthplace of Andrew Jackson 



him a hero. Andrew Jackson was a typical westerner, and 
born leader of the common people. 

In the presidential election of 1824 Jackson received the 
largest vote of any of the four candidates, but not a major- 
ity of all electoral votes. The choice of a President , there- 
fore, belonged to the House of Representatives. Two of 
Jackson's rivals were John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. 
Their supporters in the House united and chose Adams. 
Jackson's friends thought that he had been cheated, because 
more men voted for him than for Adams, and they prepared 
to make his election sure the next time. The southerners, 
the frontiersmen and farmers of the West, the workmen in 
the factory towns — the common people, most of them the 
new voting class — rallied to Jackson's aid. Great was their 
joy when they knew that their chief was victorious. It 
seemed to them to be the beginning of new things, and in 
more ways than one they were right. No election since 
Jefferson's had meant so much. 



NEW POLITICAL PARTIES 327 

So great was the power which Jackson's triumph gave him 
that some timid politicians were afraid that the presidency 
might be changed into a kingship. Those who disliked his 
domineering ways called the period, ' ' The reign of Andrew 
Jackson." For eight years, or two terms, he was President, 
and remained faithful to the cause of the common people. 

Who Shall hold the Offices? — President Jackson and his 
supporters had views about office-holding which now seem 
unwise or even harmful. For example, they believed it dan- 
gerous to allow men to hold office a long time. They were 
afraid that officials would get the idea that an office was a 
piece of property which they owned and would grow careless 
about its duties. So the Jacksonians attacked long terms of 
office, just as people before them had attacked kingship and 
hereditary nobility. 

Worse than this was the way they used offices to reward 
friends and to punish opponents. Jackson did not introduce 
the custom. It had been going on many years in some of the 
states. The men who came into power at Jackson's election 
demanded that the offices of the national government be 
distributed more freely among the common people. Shrewd 
political managers, with nothing else with which to pay their 
party followers, fell in with the idea. Jackson did not wish 
to turn honest and competent officials out, but he was easily 
persuaded that those who were "in" were incompetent ras- 
cals. To all complaints his friends replied, "To the victors 
belong the spoils." 

New Political Parties. — Jacksonian democracy carried 
forward the ideas that Thomas Jefferson had taught, but 
went farther than he dreamed of going. Since his day the 
Republican party had absorbed most of his old opponents, 
the Federalists. Their attitude during the War of 181 2 
made them unpopular, and their party had melted away. 
The period after the war, when there was but one great party, 



328 



GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE 



BORN TO COMMAND 



has been called an "Era of Good Feeling." It is hard to find 
the good feeling among the leaders of the day, for there were 
really many different factions or groups within the Republi- 
can party. Some were the followers of Adams, some of Clay, 
some of Calhoun, and some of Jackson. Upon Jackson's 
election his followers took possession of the old Jeffersonian 

Republican party. They kept its 
name a while, but were more com- 
monly known as "Jackson men," 
and soon adopted the name of 
Democrats. The Democratic party 
of Jackson's day was really a new 
party — Jacksonian rather than 
Jeffersonian. 

The opponents of Jackson claim- 
ed to be the true Jeffersonian Re- 
publicans — National Republicans 
they were called. These men, the 
followers of many different leaders, 
were united only in a dislike for 
Andrew Jackson. They accused 
him of restoring the kind of govern- 
ment against which the patriots 
had fought in the Revolution, because he had made the 
office of President so powerful. For this reason they called 
him "King Andrew," and his followers "Tories." They took 
for themselves the old Revolutionary party name of Whigs. 
The Whigs were chiefly interested in keeping up the tariff, 
having the national government aid the states in building 
canals and roads, and in opposing Jackson and the growth of 
the powers of his office. Their greatest leaders were Henry 
Clay of Kentucky and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. 

Democracy in Europe. — These changes in political life 
were not peculiar to the United States. The common 




KING ANDREW the FIRST 



What Jackson's Opponents 

THOUGHT OF HlM 
From a contemporary cartoon 



DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE 329 

people had not forgotten the ideas of equality and brother- 
hood proclaimed by the French Revolution, even if their 
rulers tried to compel them to act as if they had. In 1830 
another revolution took place in France. The King, who 
was the younger brother of the unfortunate Louis XVI, was 
driven from his throne, and a cousin, Louis Philippe, was 
made king. Louis liked to be called the "Citizen King," 
and he went about the streets as an ordinary man. He also 
sent his sons to the public schools. He had once been a 
refugee in the United States, and loved to talk about the 
Americans to returned travelers. 

General Lafayette was one of the leaders in this revolution. 
He would have preferred a republican government, but he 
was more anxious to secure political liberty than any par- 
ticular form of government, and supported the new king. A 
new law in France about doubled the number of voters. 

A still more important change occurred in England. By 
the" Great Reform Bill "of 1832 the English parliament aban- 
doned its old method of representation and adopted plans 
more like those long used in America. The right to send 
members to parliament was taken from many communities 
with few inhabitants, which were controlled by the land- 
owners, and it was given to the new factory cities like Bir- 
mingham, Manchester, and Sheffield. The right to vote was 
also extended greatly, though most of the workmen in the 
towns, and laborers everywhere, were still excluded. In 
neither France nor England did they go as far toward a 
more democratic government as in the United States, but 
a long step was taken in that direction. 

Such changes in England meant that leadership was passing 
from the men who had looked upon the Americans as rebels. 
The new leaders were willing to acknowledge that the Eng- 
lish colonists in America had fought the battle of colonists 
everywhere. These leaders would soon be ready to give full 



33© GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE 

rights of self-government to colonists like the Canadians who 
still remained loyal to the mother country. 

Need of Freedom. — There were countries of Europe in 
which the people needed more than changes in the methods 
of government. They needed to be free from the rule of 
foreigners who years before had conquered them. This was 
especially true in Poland which had been divided between 
Russia, Prussia, and Austria; in parts of Italy, where the 
Austrians were rulers; and in Greece, which had long been 
oppressed by the Turks. The Greeks were at this time the 
most successful in freeing themselves. They were aided by 
many Englishmen and Frenchmen, who wanted to show 
their gratitude for all that the great Greek teachers had 
taught the world. Greece became independent in 1829. A 
year later the Poles made a brave attempt to drive out the 
Russians, but were overwhelmed by hosts of Russian sol- 
diers. In Italy years more were to pass before the people 
of all parts of the peninsula were able to unite, and force 
the Austrians to give up Milan and Venice. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Name five important changes that were slowly going on in the United 
States. What restrictions had formerly been placed on voting and holding 
office? Why did the new states allow all men to vote and hold office? Why 
did the eastern states follow their example? 

2. How had candidates for the presidency been nominated? What changes 
did Senator Benton attempt to make? 

3. Who was chosen President in 1828? Why was he so popular? 

4. What views did Jackson and his supporters have about office holding? 

5. What became of the old Federalist party? What division took place in 
the Jeffersonian Republican party? What name did Jackson's followers take? 

EXERCISES 

1. Learn the qualifications for voters. Have these always been the same? 

2. Find out the number of men in the precinct, the number who can vote, 
and the number who voted at the last election. Why do man)'- men fail to 
vote? Can women vote? How can an immigrant become a voter? 



CHAPTER XXIX 



PROBLEMS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY 

Strife over Tariffs. — The growth of the national indus- 
tries and the spread of population gave Andrew Jackson and 
his successor, Martin Van Buren, several difficult problems 
to solve. The first of these was the tariff. When the tariff 
of 1816 was adopted by Congress, leaders of the South, like 
Calhoun, voted for it, be- 
lieving protective duties 
advantageous to the south- 
ern, as well as to the north- 
ern, states. The South, 
however, soon found that 
taxes on clothing and tools, 
things needed on the plan- 
tations, were a serious bur- 
den. Cotton did not re- 
quire protection by a tariff, 
because it was not import- JoHN c C alhouk 

ed, but exported. The Af ter a portrait by De Bloch 

southern leaders concluded that they were taxed for the 
benefit of the North. Matters were made worse when the 
extension of the plantation system, especially in the new 
Southwest, led to over-production of cotton and to low 
prices. 

The Idea of Nullification. — In the opposition to the tariff 
Calhoun, who was Vice-President, became the spokesman of 
the South. He had come to the conclusion that the new 
political methods, which were introduced mainly by the Jack- 




332 PROBLEMS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY 

sonians, strengthened the central government too much, 
destroying the original plan according to which one set of 
powers acted as a check upon another. To him the party 
managers seemed to be gaining power in every direction 
through the choice of presidential electors directly by the 
voters, the convention system of nominating the President, 
and the spoils system, which was used to pay faithful party 
followers. Calhoun, therefore, fell back upon the old idea 
that the states, rather than the Supreme Court, were final 
judges of what the national government had a right to do. 

In 1832 South Carolina, influenced by Calhoun, called a 
state convention which declared the tariff acts null and void. 
This meant that the national officers could not collect duties 
in the ports of South Carolina, and that if the United States 
used force, the state would withdraw from the Union. 

Two years before this a great debate on the questions of 
states' rights had taken place in the United States Senate. 
Senator Hayne of South Carolina defended the ideas of Cal- 
houn, and Senator Webster of Massachusetts argued that the 
powers of the national government were supreme. Webster 
closed one of his speeches with the exclamation, "Liberty and 
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." In these 
words he uttered what was in the hearts of multitudes, espe- 
cially of the settlers of the newer western states. 

Jackson and South Carolina. — Jackson had no special 
liking for the tariff, but he loved the Union as intensely as 
Webster. He denied that a state could set aside a law of 
the United States merely because it disliked the law. If 
war should become necessary, he declared that in forty days 
he would have 40,000 men in South Carolina. Men knew 
that he would make his words good. Henry Clay wished 
to keep Jackson from leading an army into South Carolina, 
and suggested a compromise in Congress. By it the tariff 
was gradually reduced to the level of 18 16. Both sides 



TALK OF NULLIFICATION 



333 



claimed the victory, the United States because it had forced 
South Carolina to repeal its declaration against a tariff act, 
with all it had said about states' rights; South Carolina 
because it had forced Congress to lower the duties on imports. 

More Talk of Nullification. 
— South Carolina was not the 
only state where men talked 
of nullifying national laws. 
The United States had a dis- 
pute with Great Britain about 
the northeastern boundary. 
The King of the Netherlands 
was asked to act as an arbitra- 
tor, and in 183 1 recommended 
that the United States give up 
part of the territory on the 
borders of Maine. Maine and 
Massachusetts were opposed to 
the plan of settlement, for it 
would have taken from Maine 
territory that she claimed and Map ^^ BouND ~ 
from Massachusetts the owner- 
ship of lands in the same territory. Both declared through 
their legislatures that the United States had no power to 
cede any portion of a state without its consent. They did 
not say that they would withdraw from the Union or fight 
if the United States accepted the decision of the King of 
the Netherlands, but that they would treat the decision as 
null and void. All trouble between the United States and 
the two northeastern states was avoided by setting aside 
the decision of the arbitrator and leaving the question of the 
boundary unsettled. 

Other Hard Questions. — The tariff was the principal 
tax by which the national government raised enough money 




334 PROBLEMS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY 

to pay its expenses. How the tariff should also be used to 
give aid to American industries was a hard question. Other 
questions, equally hard, faced the legislators and officers of 
the states. How much was it safe to expend on roads, 
canals, and other internal improvements? Should the state 
permit banks to issue paper money, when the states them- 
selves were forbidden by the Constitution to issue such 
money? 

Still other questions faced the business men of the country, 
especially of the West. Was it wise to buy land for town sites, 
lay out streets and lots, on the chance that part of the great 
stream of emigration would turn in their direction and enrich 
those who were on the ground first? Should bankers lend 
money to men who would have nothing to pay the debt unless 
the town lots were bought speedily and the canals had a 
good deal of freight to carry? Was it right for a bank to 
issue paper money with very little coin in its vaults with 
which to redeem the notes? 

Many of the canals were badly located and bound to fail. 
The main reason why they should have been planned more 
cautiously was the invention of the railroad and the loco- 
motive. Railroads did not put an end to the usefulness of 
canals like the Erie, but they soon made many others un- 
profitable, causing the money expended upon them to become 
a total loss. 

The Locomotive. — No invention has had greater influence 
on American history than that of the locomotive. For this 
the world is chiefly indebted to George Stephenson, the son of 
an English laborer. The story is told that in 1807 he wished 
to go to America, but found that he was too poor to pay his 
passage. As an engineer at a coal mine he learned all about 
the Watt steam-engine. Stephenson thought something like 
it could be used on the railroads which were being built for 
horse-cars. About 1814 he invented his first locomotive, 



EARLY RAILROADS 335 

— a rough, noisy, weak machine, — but he proved that it 
could draw cars for every-day business. By 1825 he was 
able to secure its introduction in place of horse-power on the 
new railroads, which were short lines about a dozen miles in 
length. 

Introduction of the Locomotive in the United States. — 
The Erie Canal proved of so great benefit to business in New 
York City that other cities were anxious about their share 



The First Locomotive built in the United States 
Drawn on the same scale as the modern locomotive shown behind it 

of the western trade. Charleston, South Carolina, was the 
first to use one of the new locomotives on a railroad some six 
miles long. This was in 1830. Four years later the line was 
extended westward 137 miles to the Savannah River near 
Augusta. Meanwhile the owners of the short horse-car 
lines built from Baltimore and Philadelphia toward the West 
adopted the new power. 1 

The locomotives were improved and gradually took the 
place of horses on all railroads. At first the locomotives 
could not climb steep grades or run very swiftly. Fourteen 

1 Peter Cooper built a locomotive for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as 
the Baltimore line was called, and because it was small he called it the "Tom 
Thumb." Men had doubted whether a locomotive could run around curves 
without leaving the track. Cooper proved that his could round even sharp 
curves. A race with a horse-car ended the trial trip on the double track near 
Baltimore. The horse started quicker, but the puffing engine soon gained 
headway and caught up with the horse. Then the race was neck and neck 
with the iron steed gaining as the horse grew tired, but a pulley slipped off 
the engine and the horse-car finished first. 



336 PROBLEMS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY 




07 GWBUi GKD&D gABS ASUS (SAKiAaiPAStJHQS, 

From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, 

THROUGH XAT 31 DAYS: 

-*-**© BY 37EAM BOATS, r^KJtVt^rC THE C*tT£D STATET MAIL) 

From PITTSBURGH to LOUISVILLE. 




or fifteen miles an hour was the best they could do. Railroad 
builders were slow in learning how to build the tracks in 
order to endure hard usage. At the hills the locomotives 
stopped, and stationary engines with ropes dragged the cars 

up an inclined plane 
to the top, where an- 
other locomotive took 
the cars on the jour- 
ney . Philadelphia 
used this system on 
part of the state- 
highway to Pitts- 
burgh, which was 
built to offset the ad- 
vantage given to New 
York by the Erie 
Canal. 

Other Early Rail- 
roads. — Other re- 
gions became eager 
to have railroads. 
New York business 
men began short lines 
parallel to the Erie 
Canal. In 1841 Bos- 
ton men began a railroad which was soon to reach Albany. 
The Baltimore and Ohio was steadily extended westward. 
By 1840 nearly 3,000 miles of railway had been built in the 
United States. It was, however, another ten years before 
the great railway era opened. 

Cost of Railroads and Canals. — Some of the states which 
had borrowed money to build canals borrowed equally great 
sums to build railroads. Before 1838 Illinois borrowed for 
this purpose $7,400,000, nearly as much as New York and 



Starts every morning, from the corner of Broad k Race St. 



Passenger* for Cincinnati, Louis'ille, Natchez, JVashville, St. Louis, Ac. 



OFFICE, ]» E. CORNER OF FOURTH AM» CHESNCT ST. 



> ;i 1 1 ■ njnurcm, •<».« 



Advertisement showing Method of Travel 

from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in 1837 

Reduced facsimile 



JACKSON AND THE UNITED STATES BANK 337 

Pennsylvania together had borrowed. Illinois at that time 
was a frontier state, rich in land, but with only little money. 
Chicago was still a village. The states together had already 
borrowed for canals and railroads over $100,000,000. The 
difficulty was that everybody had borrowed too much. How 
would Jackson treat the situation? 




An Early Railroad Train 
From an old print 



Jackson destroys the Bank of the United States. — In 1816 
a new Bank of the United States had been given a charter for 
twenty years. It was managed in such a way that it was 
always able to pay its notes in gold or silver. For this reason 
business men preferred its notes to the notes of the small 
state banks which sometimes were not paid. The state banks, 
therefore, wished to put an end to the Bank of the United 
States, which they said was trying to get all the business. 
The western farmers and the eastern workingmen also feared 
and hated the Bank. Jackson shared their feelings, mainly 
because he suspected that the Bank officials and their friends 
were meddling in politics and trying to control the govern- 
ment. His second campaign, in 1832, was fought on the 
question as to whether or not the Bank should be permitted 
to continue. 1 As he won, the Bank was obliged to close its 

1 The Bank secured a charter from Pennsylvania and continued to do busi- 
ness as a state bank until it failed in 1841. 



338 PROBLEMS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY 

relations with the United States by the time the charter 
ran out. 

Getting Rich Quickly. — An era of unregulated or ''wild 
cat" banking now set in. The " Get-rich-quick" fever seized 
nearly everyone. The state banks, as the states did before the 
new Constitution forbade it, issued vast quantities of paper 
money. In 1834 the amount was $94,000,000, and in 1837 
$149,000,000. A measure which Jackson adopted made the 
trouble worse. He deposited government money, formerly 
deposited in the Bank of the United States, in other banks. 
These banks, which his enemies called "pet" banks, became 
even more reckless in lending money. Seeing that the fever 
of speculation had reached the danger point, the government 
officials tried to reduce it by medicine which nearly killed the 
patient. 

Panic of 1837. — The remedy was an announcement that 
the government would receive in payment for land only gold 
and silver. Buyers had been permitted to pay in the notes 
of the state banks. The change meant that the little coin 
that was in the vaults of the state banks might be drawn out 
and that their notes would be less likely to be paid than before. 
At the same time the eastern banks were affected by business 
depression in England. Englishmen tried to collect their 
loans and ceased buying cotton, so that the loans must be 
paid, if at all, in coin. Now everyone who had lent began 
to fear the loss of his money and called upon borrowers 
to pay. The borrowers had not realized their dreams of 
wealth and had little with which to pay. Happily for 
Jackson, the crash did not come until his successor, Van 
Buren, had been inaugurated. Then banks, business houses, 
and factories failed, and thousands of workmen were thrown 
out of employment. It was five years before the country 
recovered from the after-effects of its first great fever of 
speculation. 



FINANCIAL AND LABOR QUESTIONS 339 

Trade Unions. — None were affected more by the prosper- 
ous times of Jackson's administration or by the miseries of 
Van Buren's than the workingmen. They were now numerous 
enough in the larger cities and factory towns to form trade 
societies and general trade unions. The men of each trade 
formed a trade society; as, for example, the tailors or printers 
or shoemakers. Several trade societies of the same place 
formed together a general trade union. 

According to English laws, which were not repealed 
until 1825, laborers who combined to gain high wages or 
to secure other benefits, especially by means of strikes, 
should be severely punished. The officials and judges in 
the United States at first treated the trade societies in 
the same way, sending their members to jail or fining 
them heavily. As the societies multiplied, this practice was 
abandoned. 

What the Workingmen were seeking. — The workingmen's 
unions were, of course, interested in securing shorter hours of 
work and higher wages. They wished also to abolish the old 
system of imprisonment for debt and to obtain a general 
system of free public schools. 

The unions then as now brought on strikes, and sometimes 
successfully bargained with their employers. Men who could 
say to their employers, "Raise our wages, or we will go to 
the West and take up farms," had an advantage that no 
European laborers possessed. The fact that there was such 
an abundance of cheap land had a twofold effect on Ameri- 
can life: (1) intelligent and thrifty workmen were able to 
choose between the wages offered and the western farm, and 
(2) so many went West that the trade societies did not grow 
very strong. 

In some trades the employees were able to obtain a 
working day of ten hours. When hard times came on with 
the panic of 1837, laborers found that work was the thing 



340 PROBLEMS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY 

they needed most. President Van Buren, like Jackson, 
was especially interested in their demands, and in 1840 
he fixed ten hours as the length of day for employees of 
the government, thus setting a good example to private 
employers. 

The Humanitarians. — The workingmen found the ballot 
their most useful weapon. In several cities they even formed 
separate political parties, but they usually voted with the 
Democratic party. They found allies in a group of men who 
took a deep interest in the welfare of the down-trodden and 
suffering everywhere. It was a period when intelligent men 
in England and Europe as well as America were growing more 
humane. In 1834 the "reformed" English parliament abol- 
ished slavery throughout the British empire. The leaders in 
this movement may be called humanitarians. Prominent 
among them in the United States were William Ellery Chan- 
ning, Horace Mann, and William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison 
founded a paper in Boston in 1831 and devoted his life to 
denouncing the system of slave labor and calling for its 
immediate abolition. Few people were won over by his 
violent language, or as yet took any great interest in the 
subject. 

Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt. — By 1840 the 
workingmen and humanitarians together brought to an end 
imprisonment for debt, a cruel practice which had come 
over from Europe. When Jackson became President 75,000 
persons were sent to jail as debtors every year. In Philadel- 
phia forty men were imprisoned for owing about sixty cents 
each. To make matters worse, the states as a rule failed to 
furnish either food or clothing or fuel to the prisoners. They 
depended upon gifts for these, if their families could not care 
for them. Debtors were huddled together in the prisons 
with the worst criminals. 

Free Elementary Schools. — The greatest triumph of the 



PHILANTHROPY AND EDUCATION 341 

humanitarians, the workingmen, and the farmers of the 
western states was the establishment of a system of schools, 
supported by taxation, in nearly every state East and West. 
The New England states had long before this tried to provide 
free schools for all boys. But they were only partially suc- 
cessful. Elsewhere the "free 
schools "were for the children of 
the very poor and were really 
nothing more than "pauper 
schools." In most places the 
parents taught their own chil- 
dren or engaged a tutor for 
them, if they could afford one. 

The workingmen demanded ^f/fA 
free schools, supported out of j i 
taxes, for rich and poor alike. 
What is more, they kept the sub- 
ject foremost and, with the help 
of educational reformers like 
Horace Mann, were generally successful. State after state 
voted that taxes should be used to establish elementary 
schools. The southern states, having no great body of 
free workingmen to ask for free schools, were an exception. 
These states, except South Carolina and North Carolina, 
made little effort to establish such schools, but continued to 
depend on family tutors or small private schools. In tKe 
West the states were aided by the wise system begun by the 
Congress of the Confederation of giving one section in each 
township for the benefit of the common schools. 

Girls admitted. — In colonial days girls were seldom 
admitted to the town schools, and then only at odd times 
when the boys were not in school. One writer says, "In all 
my school days, which ended in 1801, I never saw but three 
females in public schools, and they were only there in the 




Horace Mann 



342 PROBLEMS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY 

afternoon to learn to write." * A more liberal attitude pre- 
vailed soon after this writer's school days closed. The towns 
which established free public schools for boys also opened 
them to girls. In a few of the older cities on the coast 
separate schools were established for the girls. But most 
towns were too poor to build two schools. Even in those 
which succeeded, the girls' school was not as good as that 
of the boys. 

High Schools. — The new interest in education led quickly 
to the founding of free high schools. 2 Boston had one in 182 1, 
Philadelphia in 1839, and the number increased rapidly with 
each year. Many of the older towns had private academies, 
and did not find it necessary to start new schools. This 
was especially true where the old academies had money 
enough so that they could give a free education to the chil- 
dren of the town. Here too some cities built separate high 
schools for boys and girls, but the smaller and newer towns 
generally admitted the girls to the boys' high school as the 
better arrangement. 

Colleges and Universities. — Places of higher education 
also increased with the spread of the population west of the 
Alleghanies and with the growing prosperity of the whole 
country. The churches were especially active in establishing 
colleges for the frontier communities. The movement did 
not stop here. North Carolina in 1789 and South Carolina 
in 1 80 1 had begun the practice of establishing a university 
at state expense. With the organization of Ohio, Indiana, 
Michigan, and Illinois, the United States adopted the plan of 
giving to each new state or territory lands, from the sale of 

1 There were many small private schools for girls, but few could afford to 
attend them. 

2 See page 68. A few schools which were really high schools had been estab- 
lished in colonial days, but usually boys prepared for college at the private 
academies. 



QUESTIONS 



343 



which they were to start a state university. 1 In 1819, chiefly 
through the influence of Jefferson, Virginia also established a 
university. These institutions had very small resources, and 
were little more than high schools. 

None of the new colleges admitted women, nor in fact did 
any of the older eastern colleges. 2 Many people thought that 
women should confine their 
studies to elementary subjects 
and their activities to the affairs 
of the home, and even more 
doubted the ability of women to 
succeed in the studies of the 
college. But the founders of 
Oberlin College believed that 
women should have the same 
opportunity as men, and in 1833 
admitted both on the same 
terms. The movement for the 
education of women spread, at 
first chiefly through the founding 
of seminaries. Of these the most 
famous were the Mount Holyoke Seminary, established by 
Mary Lyon at South Hadley, Massachusetts, and the Troy 
Female Seminary by Emma Willard at Troy, New York. 




mWmim 



. .J* 

Mary Lyon 



QUESTIONS 

1. What difficult problem did Jackson have to face?. Why had the South 
at first supported a protective tariff? Why did it later oppose one? What 
authority did Calhoun think should be the final judge of the powers of the 
national government? 

2. What step did South Carolina take in 1832? What different views did 
Calhoun and Webster hold about the Union? What did Jackson say he would 

1 This plan was first used by the United States in the sale of land to the Ohio 
Company, in 1787, giving two townships for a university. 

2 The University of Iowa, founded in 1856, was the first state university to 
open its doors to women. 



344 PROBLEMS OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY 

do if South Carolina resisted a law of the United States? What was Clay's 
compromise? Why did both parties to the dispute think they had won? 

3. Where else did men talk about nullifying national acts? How was 
trouble with the northeastern states avoided? 

4. What other difficult question did Jackson have to meet? 

5. Why was the investment of so much money in canals a mistake? Who 
invented the locomotive? Where was it first used in the United States? What 
things were the early locomotives unable to do which the improved later ones 
could do? 

6. » What cities soon had railroads? Why did the building of railroads give 
the states much trouble? 

7. Why was the Bank of the United States unpopular? How did it come 
to an end? Why did destroying the bank bring on "wild-cat" banking? 

8. What measure did Jackson adopt which made the "get-rich-quick " fever 
worse? What remedy did Jackson try next? How did the panic of 1837 affect 
the country? 

9. Describe the organization of the workingmen. How did the govern- 
ment at first deal with such organizations? What were the unions seeking to 
do? What two great reforms did working people bring about with the help 
of reformers? 

10. How were the western states aided in founding public schools? What 
new class was admitted into the schools? Why did most towns admit boys 
and girls to the same school? What higher school did the towns begin estab- 
lishing a little later? 

n. How did the new states secure colleges and universities? Which was 
the first state to have a university of its own? Which was the first college to 
admit women on the same terms as men? 

EXERCISES 

1 . Do we have a protective tariff to-day? Prepare a list of articles protected 
by import duties. 

2. The members of the class should learn when the first railroad was built in 
their region. Did the state, the county, the township, or the town help 
build it? 

3. Learn about some local trade union, when it was founded, its size, and 
objects. 

4. What caused the great panic of 1837? 

5. What schools of higher education does the state support? Where are 
they located? When were they founded? Do they admit both men and 
women? 

6. The members of the class should select the event mentioned in this 
chapter which they think the most important, giving the reasons why they 
think it so important. 



CHAPTER XXX 

NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES BRING ON NEW QUESTIONS 

The Spaniards in Texas. — The Republic of Mexico bor- 
dered the United States on the southwest. Texas was the 
nearest of its provinces. The Spanish had known of Texas 
since Coronado's famous journey, but had done almost nothing 
toward its settlement. Enterprising priests and their helpers 
had built up several Indian mission villages, as they did in 
New Mexico and California, where they taught the Indians 
the Catholic religion and the methods of work of civilized 
men. The Indians did not like restraint and often broke 
away, resuming their old nomadic life. The Spanish ex- 
plorers in Texas were not followed by eager settlers as 
explorers were in the United States. Two or three small 
white settlements, the chief one at San Antonio, formed the 
only centers of Spanish colonization. 

Pioneers open a New Region for Americans. — Moses 
Austin and his son Stephen were the pioneers who pre- 
pared the way for the settlement of Texas. Moses Austin 
had moved from his birthplace in Connecticut to Pennsyl- 
vania, and then to western Virginia, and on to Missouri, 
where he founded a colony on what was still foreign soil. 
With the restlessness of the pioneer, he and his son made 
plans for another colony in Texas. Frontiersmen were 
crowding to the western borders of the United States in 
search of land. Texas offered them all that was desired — 
fertile land, a mild and healthful climate, and abundant 
waterways for travel and trade. 



346 RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES 



In 1820 the Austins applied for permission to settle in Texas 
and for grants of land. The Mexicans, who became inde- 
pendent the following year, made generous terms. The 
Austins had asked for six hundred and forty acres of land for 
each head of a family. They were given seven times as much, 
with an additional allowance for the wife, children, and slaves 
of each family. No wonder that the pioneers found it easy 
to persuade men to go to the new west! Moses Austin died 







San Antonio in 1848 

before the colonists were ready to start for the new lands, 
but his son carried out the plan. The little Spanish settle- 
ments of about 3,000 were increased fourfold in less than 
seven years. This was only the beginning. Most of the new 
settlers were from the United States, and chiefly, too, from 
the southern part. Many of them were planters with slaves, 
who planned to raise cotton. Thus the slave system spread 
farther westward. 

Another War of Independence. — The people of Texas 
soon had trouble with the government of Mexico. In many 
ways it was the old story of discontent, revolution, and final 
independence. The Mexicans tried to stop immigration from 
the United States, abolished slavery, and withdrew nearly all 
the grants of land. The Texans paid no attention to these 



THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS 



347 



laws, kept the frontier open by force, and continued to bring 
in slaves. A war for independence followed. In this David 
Crockett, a famous frontiersman, lost his life. Volunteers 
poured in from the southern states to help the Texans. Their 
leader was General Sam Houston, a friend of Andrew Jack- 
son. In 1836 Houston won 
a decisive victory at San 
Jacinto, capturing the 
President of Mexico and 
destroying his entire army. 
This ended the war. Texas 
adopted a form of govern- 
ment resembling that of 
the United States. It con- 
tained, however, provisions 
expressly forbidding the 
emancipation of slaves. 

The Republic of Texas, 
1836-45. — The new repub- 
lic claimed the territory 
lying along the Gulf coast 
from the borders of the United States to the Rio Grande 
River. It was large enough to contain 45 states like Massa- 
chusetts, or larger than Great Britain and France taken 
together. Mexico did not acknowledge that Texas was 
independent, much less that its boundaries extended to the 
Rio Grande. But Texas was in no more danger of being 
reconquered by Mexico than Mexico and the other Spanish 
American republics were of being reconquered by Spain. 

Shall Texas be annexed? — In 1836 the people of Texas 
asked to be admitted into the Union as a state. A few years 
earlier every section of the United States had wanted to 
acquire Texas. Presidents Adams and Jackson had in turn 
tried to purchase it from Mexico. Now the request of Texas 




Map of the Republic of Texas 
Showing territory claimed by Texas. 



348 RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES 

was rejected. Since the quarrel in Congress over slavery in 
the Louisiana Territory and the Missouri Compromise, many 
northern people were unwilling to admit any territory where 
slave laborers could work profitably. Others were anxious 
to avoid further dispute over the subject. Besides, Presi- 
dent Van Buren thought that the United States ought not 
to take territory from a friendly neighbor, for Mexico con- 
tinued to claim Texas. There the matter rested for several 
years. Mexico, however, made no serious effort to reconquer 
her lost province. 

Our Canadian Neighbors secure Self-Government. — The 
war of Texas for independence was scarcely over when a strug- 
gle broke out in Canada. In Lower Canada, or the Province 
of Quebec — the old French colony — a large majority of the 
people were descendants of the original French population. 
Upper Canada, now Ontario, had been settled by English- 
speaking people from the United States and Great Britain. 
In both Canadas British officials, supported by the older 
British families, governed. The French and the recent 
immigrants were left out. In 1837 the French took up arms. 
Some of their leaders hoped to establish an independent 
republic at Quebec. A few of the Upper Canadians also rose 
in rebellion, seeking to secure a share in the government. 
Both rebellions were put down, but England took warning, 
doubtless recalling the manner in which she had lost thir- 
teen colonies in America. The two Canadian provinces were 
united, and then permitted to govern themselves. In name 
they were still under the English crown; in fact they formed 
a free republic. The other British colonies in America — 
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island — as 
well as other English colonies in Australia and South Africa 
soon gained the same privileges without a struggle. 

The Westward Movement in Canada. — Canada, as well as 
the United States, had a westward movement. While the 



CANALS AND THE NORTHWEST 349 

Quebec and Montreal regions remained chiefly French, thou- 
sands of immigrants from the British Isles went annually to 
Upper Canada. Others left their small or worn-out farms 
in New England, New York, or Pennsylvania, and moved 
across the border. The nearness and cheapness of the lands 
attracted many who dreaded the longer journey into the 
Mississippi Valley. The same steady stream of pioneers 
pushed to the frontier on each side of the St. Lawrence and 
the Great Lakes. Canals were built around the falls in the 
St. Lawrence, and the Welland Canal between Lake Erie and 
Lake Ontario made the north shore as accessible to the sea by 
way of Quebec, as the south was by the Erie Canal through 
New York. 

The Hudson Bay Company in the Northwest. — The settlers 
never went far from the St. Lawrence waterway. The great 
Northwest was still unsettled — the haunt of the trapper and 
the fur trader. The lonely stations of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany stretched from the outskirts of Upper Canada to Hudson 
Bay and Alaska and Oregon. The company's officers opposed 
settlement, for that would disturb the work of the trapper and 
the Indian trader. But they had little fear for the security 
of their vast domain. Certainly no one then dreamed of 
farming in the cold northern land. The only signs of coming 
conflict with the pioneer were on the Columbia River in 
Oregon. 

Trail Makers. — In America land-seeking never ceased. 
Pioneers followed the trail of the Indian and the trapper, 
and carried civilization into Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa. 
In the Rocky Mountains, fur traders from St. Louis were the 
advance guard. As a century earlier such men had made 
their way through the Alleghanies into Ohio and Kentucky, 
they now marked out trails across the prairies and found the 
passes through the Rocky Mountain barrier. The Oregon 
Trail followed the Missouri and the Platte Rivers, across the 



35o RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES 



mountains at South Pass into Oregon. At Westport 
Landing on the Missouri River, now Kansas City, a trail 
started which extended 700 miles across the prairies to 
Sante Fe. A third, the California Trail, branched from 
the Oregon Trail. 

On the Oregon Trail. — The boldest pioneers in the United 
States followed the Oregon Trail to Oregon. Missionaries 
to the Indians entered soon after the trappers and traders, 




The Principal Western Trails 

and then settlers entered. Many men went out of pure love 
of adventure, as one quaintly said, "Because the thing 
wasn't fenced and nobody dared to keep 'em out." For 
whatever reason they migrated to Oregon, they were mak- 
ing it real American soil more rapidly than the Hudson Bay 
Company was making it English. 

For protection against the Indians the emigrants journeyed 
in caravans. Each family traveled with its household goods 
in a large canvas-covered wagon, called a prairie schooner, 
much like the Conestoga wagon of the earlier frontier. 
Riding horses were taken for use on the way, and cattle for 
stock in the new country. Each man had his duties as scout, 
hunter, or watchman for the party. The caravan camped 
at night where water and grazing land could be found, with 



AMERICANS SETTLE OREGON 



35i 



wagons drawn up like a circular fort. By day they moved 
slowly over the prairies and the mountain trails. Such a 
pilgrimage lasted three or four months. Births and weddings 
and deaths were frequent interruptions of such little migrat- 
ing worlds. Francis Parkman has told the story of life on 
the Oregon Trail as he 
saw it in 1846. 

Americans settle 
Oregon. — ■ In 1843 the 
settlers in Oregon, in 
true pioneer style, 
formed a government 
for themselves and so 
laid the foundations for 
later states in the Far 
West. Explorers, mis- 
sionaries, and pioneers 
had seemingly won |||l|p 
southern Oregon, at || 
least, for the United ISlgpi 
States. Both England ~~~JSs 
and the United States 
claimed the whole ter- 
ritory from California 
to Alaska, and for the time being held it jointly. A few 
American statesmen thought that nature had fixed the 
Rocky Mountains, bordered as they were with deserts of 
sand, as the final western limit. They scoffed at the 
settlement of Oregon and opposed its annexation. Others 
held a different opinion. Senator Thomas Benton, himself a 
pioneer of Missouri, championed the cause of Oregon in Con- 
gress. He had great faith in the future of the West, even to 
the shores of the Pacific. The majority of the American 
people agreed with him. They even talked about war with 




Pass through the Mountains on the 
Oregon Trail 
Sweetwater Gap 



352 RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES 




England, asserting that they must have all the territory south 
of the parallel 54 40' "or fight." 

Boundary Disputes. — John Tyler was then President. 
He had been elected as Vice-President, but General William 
Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate who had won the elec- 
tion of 1840, died within a 
month after his inauguration. 
Tyler had more sympathy with 
the Democrats than with the 
Whigs. The only Whig who 
remained in his cabinet was 
Webster. In 1842 Webster sign- 
ed a treaty with the British 
minister Ashburton settling the 
boundary dispute on the north- 
ern border of Maine. Like most 
agreements of that kind, the 
treaty was a compromise, each 
side giving up its extreme claims. No progress was made 
in deciding the Oregon question. 

On the question of Texas, Webster and Tyler did not agree, 
for Tyler was anxious to annex Texas. Calhoun was, accord- 
ingly, made Secretary of State, and he signed a treaty of 
annexation with Texas. When it was sent to the Senate for 
approval, the senators voted against it 35 to 16. This made 
the question an issue in the election of 1844. Clay, the Whig 
candidate, had been opposed to annexation, while the platform 
of James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate, declared not only 
that Texas should be annexed, but also that the whole of 
Oregon to the parallel 54 40' should be held. Polk wished, 
furthermore, to gain California. He was successful in the 
election, although he had only 40,000 votes more than Clay. 
This meant that Texas would surely be annexed, and Oregon 
and California, too, if Polk could find a way to obtain them. 



Daniel Webster 
After a daguerreotype of 1850 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 353 

QUESTIONS 

1. What had the Spaniards done toward colonizing Texas? What Ameri- 
can formed a plan for the settlement of Texas? What terms was he able to 
obtain from Mexico? Why were the Mexicans so liberal? What success had 
the Austins? 

2. What were the causes of the Texan war of independence? How long 
did Texas remain an independent republic? Why was the request of Texas 
for annexation at first rejected by the United States? 

3. What caused the rebellion in Canada in 1837? What changes did Great 
Britain make in the government of Canada? Where else were liberal privileges 
of government allowed? 

4. Describe the westward movement in Canada. From what parts of the 
United States did emigrants go to Canada? Where did they settle? Why 
did they go there in preference to the western part of the United States? 

5. What region did the Hudson Bay Company occupy? Where were the 
fur traders coming into conflict with the pioneers? 

6. What new barrier did the trail-makers pass? What trails did they 
make? 

7. Describe emigration over the Oregon Trail. What step toward per- 
manent occupation did the Oregon settlers take in 1843? 

8. What arrangement did the United States have with England about 
Oregon? What opinion did Americans have of the country? 

9. How was the northeastern boundary dispute with England finally 
settled? 

10. What was the main issue in the presidential election of 1844? What 
did Polk and his party wish to do? 

EXERCISES 

1. Review the northward movement of Spanish settlers from Mexico. See 
pages 226-227. 

2. Compare the reasons for seeking independence in the three Revolutions, 
(1) Texan, (2) Spanish American, and (3) The English Colonies, pages 164, 
!78, 3^-319. 

3. Prepare a map of Texas, on the same scale as that of Texas in any geog- 
raphy, and place it on a map of the United States with the center on Nashville. 
What part of the larger map does the map of Texas cover? Compare the 
area and population of Texas with that of Japan. 

Important Dates: 

1842. The United States and Great Britain peaceably settle the north- 
eastern boundary dispute. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

HOW THE UNITED STATES WON THE PACIFIC COAST 

Annexation of Texas. — The Democrats, victorious in the 
election of 1844, did not wait until Polk was inaugurated 
before carrying through the annexation of Texas. Some of 
them believed the rumors which were flying about that Eng- 
land was preparing to acquire California and possibly Texas. 
As they did not have votes enough in the Senate to ratify a 
treaty of annexation with the Republic of Texas, they 
adopted the plan of annexing it by a resolution passed both 
by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The vote 
in the Senate was close — 27 to 25. The resolution was 
passed March 1, 1845, an d was accepted by Texas in 
December. 

Annexation alone would probably not have brought on a 
war with Mexico, but Polk had other plans which did. He 
insisted that the Rio Grande River, instead of the Nueces 
River, was the southern boundary of the new state. He also 
supported the Texans in claiming that Texas included at 
least part of New Mexico. Furthermore, he meant to have 
California, by purchase, if possible, but at all events to 
have it. 

The California Question. — California in 1845 was an out- 
lying, neglected province of Mexico. Its missions had fallen 
into decay and most of the Indians had left the mission vil- 
lages. The inhabitants were mainly Spaniards and Mexicans 
occupied in raising cattle. California was worth much more 
than the $25,000,000 Polk was ready to give, but that was 
not the reason why the Mexicans did not wish to sell. 



THE CALIFORNIA QUESTION 



355 



When Polk sent a special agent to bargain with them, they 
would not receive him and began to prepare for war. Polk 
now determined to seize the territory between the Nueces 
and the Rio Grande. He also planned to ask Congress to 
declare war because the Mexicans would not receive his 
representative. He had a real grievance in the long delay of 




View of San Francisco in 1847 
With American ships in the harbor 

the Mexicans to pay damages for American property which 
they had destroyed during the civil wars since the overthrow 
of the Spanish government. 

Outbreak of War. — The Mexicans soon gave him a better 
excuse. When General Zachary Taylor, upon Polk's orders, 
advanced to the banks of the Rio Grande, the Mexicans 
attacked him. As soon as Polk heard of the attack he placed 
the blame for war upon the Mexicans, declaring in a message 
to Congress that, "Mexico has passed the boundary of the 
United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American 
blood upon the American soil." Congress did not declare 
war upon Mexico, but adopted an act "for the prosecution 



356 THE WINNING OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



of the existing war." The anti-slavery men were violently 
opposed to the war, because they believed its purpose was to 
add more territory in which slaves could be held. 

The Oregon Compromise. — As soon as Polk knew that he 
was likely to have a war with Mexico on his hands, he was 
willing to give up the extreme claims of the United States 

in the dispute with Great 







oundary_ lineby_treaty_with Spain^SlJ^ |_ 

M E X) I C O 



The Oregon Compromise 



Britain over Oregon. If he 
insisted on demanding, as 
his party had done in the 
recent election, " 54 40' 
or fight," he might have 
drawn the country into a 
war with England, and that 
was not the same as a war 
with Mexico. Polk, there- 
fore, quietly offered to 
accept the 49th parallel as 
the dividing line. This 
parallel was the northern 
boundary of the United 
States east of the Rocky Mountains. The same offer had 
been made several times since 18 18, but the English had 
not been ready to accept it. The treaty was made in 
June, 1846. The bargain was fair to both sides and a wise 
settlement of the dispute. The territory included the 
present states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. 

The War with Mexico, 1846-47. — The war with Mexico 
lasted less than two years, though this was longer than Polk 
had expected. General Taylor took possession of the sparsely 
settled provinces of northern Mexico after hard fighting at 
Monterey and Buena Vista. General Kearny led a smaller 
force from Fort Leavenworth over the Sante Fe Trail to 
California, seizing New Mexico on the way. He found 



THE WAR WITH MEXICO 



357 



California already in the hands of an American naval force. 
It could hardly be called the conquest of California, for there 
was no Mexican army to conquer and the Californians offered 
little resistance. 

In 1847 Polk sent General Winfield Scott to make a direct 




Map of the Mexican War 



attack on the capital of Mexico. Scott followed closely the 
route of Cortes into the heart of the country. The natives 
outnumbered the invaders and fought with all the fury of 
the Aztecs, but the better organization, discipline, and leader- 
ship of the American troops won. The ancient capital of 
Mexico was taken and the last army of resistance broken up. 



358 



THE WINNING OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



Terms of Peace with Mexico, 1848. — In 1848 Polk made 
his own terms of peace with the feeble government which 
was left in Mexico. Many urged that all of Mexico be 
annexed, but Polk was satisfied to leave the unfortunate 
republic independent, although humiliated and crippled. He 
compelled the Mexican government to acknowledge that the 
Rio Grande River was the boundary of Texas and to give 
up New Mexico and California. He had been ready to 
pay something for this territory, and he now agreed to give 




^P¥f*:t " IP 



Sacramento in 1848 

$15,000,000 directly, besides $3,500,000 to those Americans 
who claimed damages from Mexico. 1 

Discovery of Gold in California, 1848. — One part of the 
new territory awakened immediate interest. A few days 
before Mexico agreed to the terms of peace, gold was discov- 
ered in California. Some laborers engaged in building a saw- 
mill in the Sacramento Valley turned up the earth and found 
yellow grains which proved to be gold. They soon discovered 
more, widely scattered in the sand. The news spread. Saw- 
mills, farms, and shops lost their interest for the settlers of 

1 Trouble arose over the location of the boundary between the Rio Grande 
and the Colorado Rivers, and in 1853 the United States avoided war by pur- 
chasing from Mexico a strip of territory south of the Gila River. It was called 
the Gadsden Purchase from James Gadsden, who was the purchasing agent. 




Longitude West 107 from GreeirwtWl 



DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 359 

California. All were abandoned. Even the courts were closed 
for want of anybody to attend them. A ship which came to 
anchor in San Francisco Bay was immediately deserted by 
the crew. The captain saw nothing better to do and set off 
for the diggings, leaving his ship under the care of his wife. 
Within a year $5,000,000 worth of gold had been taken out and 
during the next ten years nearly one hundred times as much. 
Many of the American people, therefore, looked upon the 
war with Mexico as a piece of good fortune. 

"The Forty-Niners." — The discovery of gold in Califor- 
nia gave the westward movement a new turn. The adven- 
turers who went out the next year, the "Forty-niners," were 




"WscyC wSv*^' ft ' "'"■'' 

The Overland Route to California 

more like the Argonauts of old or De Soto's men seeking the 
El Dorado in North America than the other pioneers. Emi- 
grants from Europe and from the eastern states sailed around 
Cape Horn or crossed the Isthmus of Panama. Those who 
went by the Isthmus of Panama rode mules across the 
narrow pass, braving the dangers of tropical fever and of 
robber bands. Steamboats, which were just coming into use 
for long voyages, found crowds at New York and Panama 
clamoring for passage. 

The favorite route for most American immigrants started 
on the Missouri and followed the Oregon Trail and its branch 
to California. Caravans of prairie schooners, cavalcades of 
horsemen, the poorer adventurers afoot, dotted the trail on 
the desert plains. Their number made the Oregon migra- 
tion seem small by comparison. On the trail the "Forty- 



360 THE WINNING OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



niners" passed Salt Lake where the Mormons, 1 a new reli- 
gious sect, were irrigating the sage-brush plain and turning it 
into fertile farm-land. They had discovered the true source 
of wealth as the Californians were later to learn. 

A few of the "Forty-niners" found for- 
tunes, but most of them made barely 
enough to pay their expenses, and all suf- 
fered hardships in fever-ridden, half- 
famished camps. Prices rose faster than 
gold could be dug to meet them. Spades 
and shovels were $10 apiece; a shirt cost 
$40; a candle, $3; a barrel of pork, $200. 
The average profit in digging gold never 
exceeded $1,000 a year. 

The discovery of gold affected many 
persons besides the miners who went to 
California. It increased the amount of 
money. Business men could borrow on 
easier terms for their enterprises. The 
consequence was a new period of feverish 
activity, like that which followed the building of the National 
Road, the Erie Canal, and the first railroads. 

California Ready to become a State. — The population of 
California grew by leaps and bounds. Within two years it 
had increased tenfold. The old Spanish and Mexican pop- 
ulation was only a small part of the whole. San Francisco 
changed from a village into one of the large cities of the 
United States, with 20,000 inhabitants. It was a real babel 
of languages — English, German, Spanish, Hawaiian, Chi- 
nese, and Malay. California in 1849 formed a government of 
its own and was ready to enter the Union. As the people 
were almost all free workingmen, it is not surprising that they 

1 The Mormons built their first "temple" at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1836. They 
reached Utah in 1847. 




A Forty -Niner 



QUESTIONS 361 

forbade slavery entirely. The desire of the settlers that 
California should be admitted to the Union without slavery 
again raised the slavery question, dividing men in the South 
and the North into two hostile groups. It threw all other 
questions into the backgound and became the principal 
political issue. 

A Frontier on the Pacific. — The acquisition of California 
and the establishment of the American claim to Oregon 
secured a new frontier. The United States now faced the 
Pacific Ocean as well as the Atlantic. It had ceased to be 
chiefly an outlying part of Great Britain and Europe, offering 
new homes to those who wished to leave the old, and had 
become a world, looking eastward toward Europe and west- 
ward toward Asia, desiring friendship and commerce with 
both. One reason why the government was so eager to obtain 
California was to open a more direct trade with China and 
the Pacific islands. In 1844 China had agreed to permit 
Americans to trade in five ports. Ten years later, Japan, 
also long closed to foreigners, opened ports to American 
traders. American missionaries were already influential in 
the Hawaiian Islands. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why were the Democrats in a hurry to annex Texas? How did they 
bring it about? 

2. What plans had Polk which brought on war with Mexico? What real 
grievances did the United States have against Mexico? How did the war 
actually begin? Who was to blame? Why were the anti-slavery men opposed 
to the war? 

3. How did Polk secure Oregon? Did he obtain all of the Oregon country? 

4. What did Taylor's, Kearny's, and Scott's armies accomplish in the war? 
Why were they victorious? 

5. What were Polk's terms of peace with Mexico? 

6. What event of 1848 made the war with Mexico seem particularly timely to 
many Americans? Describe the migration of the "Forty-niners." 

7. What new settlement did the "Forty-niners" pass on the California 



362 THE WINNING OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

trail? How did the majority of the California gold-seekers finally find wealth? 
How did the discovery of gold affect business in the United States? 

8. Describe California in 1850. Why did the Californians forbid slavery? 

9. What further effect had expansion on the United States? What foreign 
trade privileges were gained about this time? 



EXERCISES 

1. Compare the ways by which the government of the United Slates 
annexed Louisiana and Texas. 

2. Was the war with Mexico honorable to the United States? 

3. Why may the migration of the "Forty-niners" be compared to the Argo- 
nauts or De Soto's El Dorado seekers? 

4. Compare the area of California with that of sonic of the older states. 

Important Dates: 

1845. Texas annexed. 

1846. Oregon secured by a compromise with Great Britain, and the war 

with Mexico begins. 
1848. Discovery of gold. 




Sutter's Fort in 1848 
Near which gold was first found in California 



CHAPTER XXXII 

A GREAT DOMAIN, NEW TOOLS, AND WILLING HANDS 

The Domain. — In 1850 the territory of the United States 
stretched westward from the Mississippi River across the 
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean Most of the region 
was unoccupied except by roving tribes of Indians. Iowa had 
been a state only four years; Wisconsin only two. Minne- 
sota had become a territory the year before. Where were 
men and women to be found to carry the line of settlement 
across this vast domain? The newer states apparently 
needed all their people for their own unfinished tasks. If 
men and women could be found, how were they to reach 
places so distant? The immigrant and the railroad were 
the answers to these questions. 

Railroads. — At the time California was obtained, only a 
few short railroad lines existed in the Mississippi Valley. 
None had yet crossed the great Alleghany ranges from the 
East. Finally, in 1853, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
reached Wheeling, and the next year the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road was completed to Pittsburgh. Already, in 1852, two 
railroads entered Chicago: the Michigan Central from Detroit 
and the Michigan Southern from Toledo. By 1855 travelers 
could go by rail from New York to St. Louis. During the 
ten years from 1850 to i860 the number of miles of railway 
was tripled. If all the railroads had been put end to end they 
would have circled the earth, with 5,000 miles to spare. 

The early railroads were usually built with the aim of con- 
necting the great waterways. This had been the purpose of 



304 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW DOMAIN 



the canals, but they were closed by ice several months each 
year. The Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio rail- 
roads were intended to connect Philadelphia and Baltimore, 
the eastern rivals of New York, with the rivers of the Ohio 
and Mississippi valleys. The Michigan roads cut off the 
long route by the Straits of Mackinac from the lower lakes 
to Chicago. 

The railroads soon ceased to be mere connecting links. 
They were built even on the banks of the Hudson River and 




" i 1 11 Railroads in operation in 1850 — — Railroads completed between 1S50 and !S6d 

Railroads in Operation in the Northern States in 1S60 

along the shore of Lake Eric, challenging the steamboat in the 
race for trade. As a result new routes of trade sprang up, 
independent of lake and river and sea-coast. The route on 
the Mississippi River to the Gulf lost some of its importance, 
and the relations between the West and the East became 
closer than those between the West and the South. Settle- 
ment, too, moved along these east and west lines. The 
railroads thus became an important geographical feature 
added by man to the natural features of river, lake, and 
mountain. 

The growth of towns was affected by such changes. The 
future of a city was doubly assured if it was served by both 



RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPHS 



365 



water route and railroad. This was especially true of cities 
on the Great Lakes — a water route unrivalled in the world. 
After the St. Mary's ship-canal and locks were completed, 
steamboats could go from the western end of Lake Superior 
to the eastern shore of Lake Erie. They carried the iron 
ores of the Lake Superior region to Chicago, Detroit, Cleve- 
land, and Buffalo. To these cities the railroad brought the 
coal of western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. The con- 
sequence was that they began manufacturing iron and steel. 
Chicago, so near the southern end of Lake Michigan, had a 
further advantage. It was the western end of almost all 
railroads from the East, and the starting-point of those to 
the newer West. As early as 1850 a railroad ran west from 
Chicago as far as Elgin. As the railroad decreased the im- 
portance of waterways, Cincinnati and New Orleans lost part 
of their supremacy in the trade of the Mississippi Valley. 

The Telegraph. — While the 
railroad was binding the country 
together in many directions, a net- 
work of telegraph wires was adding 
to the means of communication. 
The telegraph assisted the employ- 
ees of railroads in managing trains, 
but it was equally important in 
enabling the business man to send 
orders or obtain information from 
distant places in a few minutes. 

The inventor of the telegraph 
was Samuel F. B. Morse, a pro- 
fessor in New York University. 

He thought out a plan for sending messages over a wire, 
and made a rough instrument which did what he expected. 
As he could get no one to help him build a telegraph line, 
he appealed to Congress for aid. For several years Congress 




Samuel F. B. Morse 



366 DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW DOMAIN 



refused to grant money, but finally gave him $30,000 with 
which to build an experimental line between Washington 
and Baltimore. This was completed in 1844, in time to 
carry to Washington the news of the nomination of James 
K. Polk to the Presidency within fifteen minutes after the 
Democratic convention at Baltimore had reached its decision. 
Morse's triumph convinced doubting business men. Private 
companies built lines. In 1848 Ezra Cornell completed a 
line from New York to Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, 
and Milwaukee. 

A Revolution in the Post-office. — A change in the charges 
made by the post-office for carrying letters was almost as 
important as the invention of the telegraph. The rates had 
been so high that ordinary persons could not afford to write 

often to friends or 
business associates 
living at a dis- 
tance. A single 
sheet cost six 
cents for 30 miles, 
ten cents between 
30 and 80 miles, 
and so on, until 
the cost rose to 
25 cents for all 
distances over 400 miles. In 185 1 Congress fixed the rate 
at three cents within the country. 1 Newspapers were by 
this time carried with the other mail, but the rates for them 
remained high. 

Steamships. — While the railroad was providing for travel 

from the Atlantic seaboard to the interior, the steamboat 

was making it easier to reach America. Sailing ships also 

made the trip more quickly than in earlier days. The 

1 In 1883 the rate of postage on letters was reduced to two cents. 




An American Clipper 



THE POST-OFFICE AND STEAMSHIPS 



367 



Americans had learned to build a ship called the "clipper," 
which could make three voyages between Europe and Amer- 
ica while a British ship was making two. These ships by 
their superiority were pushing the English hard in the race 
for ocean trade. They were particularly successful in the 
long voyages required in the trade with China. Sometimes 
these splendid vessels raced from Chinese ports to New York, 
eager to land the first cargoes of the new crop of tea. But 
the creation of the iron steamship meant their ruin sooner 
or later. 

In England timber was scarce, but iron and coal were 
cheap. About a quarter of the ships which the English built 
in 1853 were of iron. Fifteen years before this a British 
line of steamships began regular trips between England 
and the Uni- 
ted States. 
Excellent 
though the 
clippers were, 
they could 
not compete 
with the 
steamship. 
The fi r s t 

ocean steamships often required fifteen days for the voyage, 
but by 1847 they had lowered the time to eleven days. 

New Tools for the Farm. — The farmer's task in making 
the land productive was rendered easier by the invention of 
new machinery. The sickle and scythe began to give place 
to the mowing-machine and the harvester, and the flail to 
the threshing machine. Horserakes, cultivators, and corn 
planters appeared. The invention of harvesting machinery 
was chiefly the work of Cyrus McCormick of Virginia. His 
father had tried for years to "make a successful machine for 




The Old Way of Reaping 



368 DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW DOMAIN 

cutting grain, and young McCormick took up the problem 
where his father left it. He soon constructed a reaper which 
was fairly successful. After it had been improved it was able 
to do the work of twenty men, not only cutting the grain, 
but also binding it and laying it in windrows. 

The threshing machine was equally successful. In 1855 

at the World's 
Fair in Paris, 
six threshers with 
flails were set at 
work beside one 
of the American 
machines. In half 
an hour the ma- 
chine threshed ten 
times as much 
wheat as the men. 
Such farm machinery increased the demand for western land. 
Thus the line of settlement moved westward faster than ever. 
Tools for Other Work. — The settlement of the country 
was helped by the invention of other tools which were not 
connected directly with farm work. The steam hammer 
made the tasks of the ironworker easier. The planing machine 
aided the carpenter. The rotary or cylindrical press helped 
the printer. Some newspapers ventured to reduce the price 
from 6 cents a paper to a cent, and declared that they would 
bring all the news of the day within the means of everybody. 1 
The steam-engine supplied them with power, and the tele- 
graph brought in fresh news, and so increased their useful- 




The First T\pe of McCormick Reaper 



1 The New York Daily Sun, 1833. was the first penny newspaper. Two 3 - ears 
later, James Gordon Bennett started another, the New York Herald. Horace 
Greeley, in 1841, founded the New York Tribune; ten years later Henry J. 
Raymond established the New York Times. The price of these was later 
increased to two cents. 



NEW INVENTIONS 



369 



ness as teachers of the people. The newspapers, in turn, 
made profitable work for the telegraph, and hastened its 
extension throughout the country. 



THE 




SUN. 



NuMBCR 1.] 



NEV YORK. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1833. 



[Pact Ok Taxr 



PUBLISHED DAILY, 




The First Copy of "The Sun" — a Penny Newspaper 



The sewing machine, one of the most useful of the newer 
inventions, was completed by Elias Howe in 1846. He had 
planned it several years earlier, but was too poor to pay the 
cost of construction. His first machine in a sewing race 
distanced five of the swiftest hand sewers. It earned him 
a fortune and lightened the burden of women. The prin- 
ciple of the sewing machine was soon used in constructing 
machines for sewing leather and making shoes. Machines 
were also invented which cut and 
sewed button-holes. 

Other inventions, cook stoves, base- 
burners, and furnaces, made the home 
more comfortable and the work of the 
housewife easier. Americans borrowed 
from Europe the invention of the 
match. In a multitude of ways the 
needs of life were met by the ingenu- 
ity of thoughtful men and women. 
Over 23,000 different articles were patented between 1850 
and i860. 

Why the Immigrants Came. — The ways of living in Europe 
and Great Britain were changed as rapidly as in the United 




Howe's Sewing 
Machine 



370 DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW DOMAIN 

States. Indeed, in England the factory system developed 
much faster. Railroads were multiplied. Life for the well- 
to-do became more comfortable, but for the common man 
and his family the lands of opportunity lay beyond the seas. 
They were not the United States merely, but also Canada, 
Australia, and South Africa. The United States proved far 
more attractive to the European emigrant than all the other 
countries together. 

Between 1845 an d 1850 several events swelled the stream 
of emigration. In 1845 an d 1846 the failures of crops caused 
much distress in Great Britain and Europe. The potato 
crop, the principal article of food of the Irish peasantry, was 
a total failure. All that private charity and government 
help could do was not enough to prevent terrible suffering. 
Nearly a million persons perished from starvation or fever. 
The government repealed the "corn" laws which taxed 
grain, but this remedy came too late. Thousands sailed for 
America. A quarter of the population of Ireland was lost 
from famine, fever, and emigration. 

In 1848 Germany was again in the midst of a revolution. 
The more progressive leaders, weary of the system which 
gave power to the rulers and to a clique of nobles, attempted 
first to found a new German empire and then a republic. 
They were defeated by the aristocratic party and many of 
them fled to the United States. Others came to better their 
lot. Between 1846 and 1856 a million Germans entered the 
country. Some, like Carl Schurz, soon became leaders in its 
political struggles. 

It was not strange that the new " pilgrims" turned their 
faces toward America, which offered them cheap lands, light 
taxes, work for all, and equality with their neighbors. The 
Irish commonly remained in the towns and cities of the coast 
states. The Germans went to the frontier — Wisconsin, 
Iowa, Missouri, Texas — wherever good land was to be had. 



THE NEW WEST 371 

Immigration from the Older States. — The older northern 
states also contributed their share of settlers to the new 
West. Families were still large, and the sons and daughters 
accepted the common advice of the time, "Go West, young 
man!" A constant stream of young people from the states 
farther east mingled with the strangers from Europe in 
making the new settlements amid the prairies and forests of 
the Mississippi Valley. Children of Scotch-Irish, German, 
and English descent from Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
New York, and New England were in the migration. It 
sometimes seemed that whole villages of New England were 
going to empty themselves into the more fertile farm lands 
of the West. The names of the towns often suggested the 
eastern homes of their founders. Springfield, Quincy, and 
Pittsfield in Illinois showed the tracks of the sons of Massa- 
chusetts in the westward movement. Congregational churches 
sprang up wherever the New Englanders went. Even the 
New England town meeting once a year to choose officers 
and discuss town business was transplanted into Michigan, 
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 

To " Go West " was easier than it had been before the days 
of canals, steamboats, and railways. Unless the immigrant 
from the older states or from Europe wished to seek lands far 
beyond the Mississippi, he was no longer obliged to travel for 
weeks on horseback or in a heavy wagon over rough roads and 
mountain trails. Of course, the railroad cars were not as com- 
fortable as they are now. Many of the immigrants did not 
plan to become farmers, and stopped in the older towns along 
the way. Like the earlier settlers they were eager to make 
these cities rivals of the cities on the coast founded in colonial 
days. Their success is shown by the rapid increase in the size of 
Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis between 
1840 and i860. Chicago, for example, in 1840 numbered 4470 
people. In i860 its population was 112,172. 



372 DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEW DOMAIN 




Plowing a Southern Cotton Field 



Share of the South in the New Activities. — The southern 
states had almost no share in the new activities which busied 
the North and West. European immigrants seldom settled 
there. Factories were rarely established south of Maryland. 
The slaves were too ignorant, clumsy, and wasteful to use 
machinery or engage in the higher kinds of farming. 
But there was another reason why few industries were estab- 
lished in the 
v/£ i ti j South. The 

increase in the 
demand for 
cotton, especi- 
ally in England 
and in New 
England, con- 
vinced the 

southerners that their greatest profits would be found in 
cotton growing. The production increased from 1,976,000 
bales in 1840 to 4,675,000 twenty years later. As the price 
during the same time had increased, the gains of the planters 
were large. Like the sugar planters in the West Indies in 
the eighteenth century, they could not afford to build their 
machinery or weave their cloth or even raise their food. 
Everything of that kind they purchased in Great Britain, 
in Europe, or in the northern states. They bought, for 
example, $5,000,000 worth of shoes a year in Massachusetts. 
The cottons which they required to clothe their slaves were 
obtained either in New England or old England. For this 
reason others besides the southerners were interested in the 
production of cotton. Others also feared any change in 
the system of labor which might endanger a profitable 
trade. No wonder the southerners said that "Cotton is 
king." 

Slavery in the Border States. — It would be a mistake to 



THE SOUTHERN STATES 



373 




Picking Cotton 



suppose that slavery existed on every farm in the South. 
Only about one family in five owned any slaves. The others 
supported themselves and their families by their own labor. 
Most of the slaves were in South Carolina, Georgia, and the 
Gulf states. Outside of the cotton belt, the greater part of 
the work was done by free laborers. The plantation system 
of using slave labor was profitable tb the owners only so long 
as fertile land 
was cheap and 
plentiful. Wher- 
ever that gave 
out, slavery 
slowly broke 
down. Each 
year saw the 
abandonment of 
old cotton fields 

in the eastern states of the South and the establishment of 
new plantations in the Gulf states. This could not go on 
forever. 

Before the Revolution slavery was common in all colonies, 
North and South. It slowly declined in the North and 
disappeared. The change was brought about mainly because 
slaves had ceased to be profitable. Since 1783 it had also 
been slowly declining in Maryland, Virginia, and North 
Carolina. In that year negro slaves formed about one- 
half the population of Virginia; in i860 not more than 
one-third. In Maryland free negroes did about one-half of 
all the work. 

The question of labor troubled the planters greatly. All 
their money was invested in land and slaves. A good field- 
hand cost from $1,500 to $1,800. The planters knew that the 
slaves were poor laborers. Many would have given up their 
slaves gladly if they could have found free laborers upon 



374 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW DOMAIN 




whom they could depend, but they did not believe that the 
slaves would work if freed. The abolition of slavery, they 
thought, meant the ruin of the South. 



QUESTIONS 

i. What unoccupied territory did the United 
States possess in 1850? 

2. What railroads joined the East with the 
Mississippi Valley between 1850 and i860? What 
was the aim of the builders of the first railroads? 
Of the later ones? How did the railroads affect 
the routes of trade? The relations of East and 
West, North and South? 

3. How did the railroads affect the growth of 
cities? Why did Chicago become a great city? 
Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit? 

4. What was the effect of the telegraph 
lines? Who invented the telegraph? How did 
he prove its usefulness? 

5. What change was made in postal rates? 
Why was the change an important one? 

6. What were the "clipper" ships doing? What kind of ships began to 
take their place? Why did England build iron steamships instead of wooden 
"clippers"? 

7. What farm machinery was invented? What effect had each on farm 
work? What tools were invented for other work? How did each affect the 
work of the shop or the home? 

8. How were the ways of living changing in Europe? Why did immigrants 
come in increasing numbers? Did they leave Europe for any other countries 
besides the United States? 

9. Why did the Irish migrate to America in such numbers? Why did 
the Germans? What did each do in America? Who settled in the new western 
territories? What routes did they follow in their journey? 

10. Why did the South fail to share in the new activities? Why did the 
southern people confine themselves so fully to cotton growing? Did anybody 
else profit from slave labor in cotton growing? 

11. Did the majority of the southern people own slaves? Where had 
slavery already ceased entirely? Where had it been abandoned? Where had it 
partially broken down? How long could slavery last in the South? If the 
slaves were such poor laborers whs were the southern people unwilling to free 
them. 



A Southern Planter 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 375 



EXERCISES 

1. What states had been formed west of the Mississippi besides those men- 
tioned in the chapter? 

2. What cities have become great through the help of railroad lines? 

3. What was the length of time needed to cross the ocean in colonial days? 
After the beginning of regular steamship lines? 

4. What did the Southerners mean when they declared, "Cotton is king"? 

Important Dates : 

1844. Morse builds the first telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. 
1846. Elias Howe invents the sewing machine. The Irish potato famine 

starts a great- Irish migration to the United States. 
1848. A revolution in Germany starts a great migration of Germans to 

the United States. 




Cotton 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY 

Slavery and the New Southwest. — The question of slav- 
ery was not a new political issue. It had been discussed 
when the Ordinance of 1787 was being prepared. It was 
brought up again after the purchase of Louisiana, and an 
arrangement concerning that territory was embodied in the 
Missouri Compromise. With the acquisition of New Mexico 
and California, and with the increasing flood of immigrants 
in the West, it excited men's minds as never before. 

Planters knew that the time would come when the old cot- 
ton lands would be worn out, and new lands would become 
necessary or the investment in slaves would be worthless. In 
1849 the people of California voted to exclude slavery, but 
the southern leaders thought that a bargain might be made 
by which California should be divided into two states, and 
slavery permitted in southern California. They had already 
given way as to Oregon, and Congress had prohibited the 
holding of slaves within its limits, but they had no idea of 
yielding in regard to the Southwest. Delegates from several 
southern states met at Nashville in order to express a united 
opposition to any plan of closing California or New Mexico 
to slavery. Some leaders talked freely of their intention to 
break up the Union rather than permit such a law. 

Fugitive Slaves. — Nor was this the only difference between 
the states with slaves and those without. By the laws of the 
United States, if a slave ran away his master could pursue 
him even into another state. It was the duty of United 



NORTHERN OPPONENTS OF SLAVERY 



377 




States officers to help the owner recapture his property. 
The law was an old one, having been made in 1793 when 
Washington was President. Slaves-, especially in border 
states like Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, 
frequently ran away. Their masters found it difficult to 
capture the fugitives because many people in the free states 
were ready to help them escape. The slave-holders accord- 
ingly demanded a more severe law by 
which those who aided fugitive slaves 
might be punished. 

Northern Opponents of Slavery. — The 
northern abolitionists demanded that the 
system of slavery should be destroyed 
root and branch. William Lloyd Garri- 
son was still thp leader, and in twenty 
years of untiring agitation he had won 
a loyal, though not a very numerous, 
following. The majority of the northern 
people were opposed to interference with 
slavery in the states. Workmen feared that if the negroes 
were freed, they would migrate to the northern states in 
such numbers as to reduce their wages. Business men were 
afraid that Garrison's plan would ruin the South and so 
shut off the supply of cheap cotton and destroy the market 
for northern goods. But many northern people, who would 
not go so far as the abolitionists, were anxious to stop 
the spread of slavery into the new territories. 

Those who wished to prevent the spread of slavery were 
called "Free-soiiers." Many of them broke away from the 
old political parties, and in the election of 1848 voted to make 
Van Buren President. Lewis Cass, the Democratic candi- 
date, proposed to leave the slavery question to the people 
of the territories. As they were often called squatters, this 
was called the doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty." The 



A House-Slave of 
Washington's Day 



378 



THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY 



Whigs took no stand on the slavery question, and nominated 
for President General Taylor, the "hero of Buena Vista." 
Taylor was elected, but the question was not forgotten. 

The Compromise of 1850. — In 1850 the moderate leaders 
of the old parties united to bring about a settlement. Henry 

Clay, now a very old man, 
acted as their spokesman, 
and proposed a comprom- 
ise. It was the third great 
compromise that he had 
lived to propose when the 
Union was in danger. 
For nearly a year Con- 
gress discussed the parts 
of Clay's plan. The ab- 
lest orators of America 
spoke. Calhoun, wasted 
with old age and so feeble 
that he could not stand, 
sat while another read his speech. A few days afterward 
the famous champion of the South died. Clay and Webster 
appealed to men of the North and the South to lay aside 
their differences in order to save the Union. 

The Compromise of 1850 was an attempt to satisfy both 
sides. (1) By forbidding the buying and selling of slaves in 
the District of Columbia, Clay hoped to please those in the 
North who wished to abolish slavery there. (2) By a new 
fugitive slave law, he hoped to pacify southern slave-holders. 
(3) By admitting California without slavery, he believed 
the North would be pleased. (4) By the provision that 
Congress should not interfere regarding slavery in Utah and 
New Mexico, 1 but should leave the inhabitants free to decide 
between free and slave labor, he wished to end the dispute 

1 These included Nevada and Arizona. 




Henry Clay 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 



379 



OVERLAND TO THE PACIFIC. 




ISgeaagSfiMftt limr 



The San Antonio and San Diego Mail-Line. 

• ♦ » ■ ■ — 

This Line, which has been In successful operation since July, 185T, Is ticketing PASSENGERS 
through to San Diego and San Francisco, and also to all intermediate sUl.oos. Passengers and 
Express matter forwarded in NEW CO ACHES, drown by ji« mules, over the entire length of our 
-Line, excepting (he Colorado Desert of one hundred miles, which we cross on mule-back Pa** 
seagers guaiukteeo m their tickets to rids in Coaches, excepting the one hundred miles abev* 

stated. 

Passengers ticketed through, from NEW-ORLEANS, to the following points, via SAN 
MTTONIO: 



To Tort Clark, Pare, $52. 

** Hudson ** 00. 

** Port Lancaster, ** 70. 



Quitman,,.... 
Bixchville, ... 
San Elizario,. 
El Paso, 



©O. 
10O. 

100. 
100. 
100. 



To Port Bliss; Fare,$100. 

** La Mesilla / " 105. 

u Fort Fillmore, *• 105. 

** Tucson " 135. 

"Port Yuma, ** 162. 

" Saa Diego, « 190. 

" L03 Anselos, * 190. 

** 8an Francisco, ** 200. 



nthly from each end, on the 9tb and Stftb of eicb 



about the new territory. 1 This last provision meant that 
slave-holders could take their slaves into the Southwest and 
have a share in deciding the question whether slavery should 
be permitted or abol- 
ished. The statesmen 
who arranged the 
Compromise imagined 
that every great dif- 
ference had been laid 
to rest. Within a few 
months the old lead- 
ers, Clay and Webster, 
died. If the Compro- 
mise failed, new men 
and new measures 
must save the Union. 
The new men had 
already made them- 

Passeogers are provided with provision, during the trip, except where the Coach stops at 
ggjygg Xieard. In the Pub ' <: h ° us " i1 '" , & "* Line ' atwhlcheach Pu». F r will paytor his own men. 

Each Passenger is allowed thirty pounds of personal baggage, exclusive of blankets and 

anti-slavery party 
they were William H. 
Seward of New York, 
Salmon P. Chase of 
Ohio, and Charles 
Sumner of Massachu- 
setts. On the pro- 
slavery side stood Ste- 
phen A. Douglas of Illinois, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, 
and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia. Seward had opposed 
the Compromise and in the course of the debate had ap- 
pealed to a "higher law" than the Constitution, a law of 
liberty and justice. Had Taylor lived, perhaps the Com- 

1 Texas was satisfied for a loss of territory given to New Mexico by a 
grant of $10,000,000. 



The Coaches of our tine leave s 
month, al 6 o'clock A.M. 



Passengers coming to San Antonio can lake the line of mail-steamer* from New-Orlean, 
five times a week to Indianola. From the latter place there is a daily line of four-horse mail- 
coaches direct to this place. 

Oo the Pacific side, the California Steam Navigation Company are funning a first-class 
ateamer, semi-monthly, to and from San Francisco and San Diego. 

Extra Baggage, uA*rt carried^ 40 cents per pound to El Paso > and Jl per pouod to San Die,., 

Passengers can obtain all necessary outfits in San Antonio. 

For further information, and for the purchase of tickets, apply at the office of C. 
WAYNE. 61 Camp Street, New-Orieaos, or at the Company's Office, in San Antonio. 
G. H. GIDDINGS,I_ 

Mode of Travel to the New Territory 

Reduced facsimile of an advertisement of the 

Overland Stage 



380 THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY 

promise would not have been adopted, for Seward had great 
influence over him. 1 

The Failure of the Compromise. — The quiet which fol- 
lowed the Compromise was soon ended. The extremists on 
neither side were satisfied. The southerners believed that 
they had lost ground by the admission of California as a 
free state and by the prohibition of the slave-trade in the 
District of Columbia. The advantages that the Compromise 
offered in return proved to be worthless. Slavery could 
never pay in Utah and New Mexico. Physical geography 
had, as Webster said, forever settled the question. Negro 
slaves had neither the skill nor the industry needed to make 
the deserts bear fruit. Nor was the new fugitive slave law 
of any great value. 

The Underground Railroad. — The Compromise had also 
made the northern abolitionists angrier than ever. They 
denounced particularly the law for the recovery of fugitive 
slaves. When some one said that the northern people ought 
not to work against slavery because the laws of the United 
States protected it, James Russell Lowell, the poet, exclaimed, 
"To be told that we ought not to agitate the question of 
slavery, when it is that which is forever agitating us, is like 
telling a man with the fever and ague on him to stop shaking, 
and he will be cured." 

Such people secretly aided negroes to escape in spite of the 
law and the danger of punishment. They hid them in their 
houses in the day time and at night helped them on their 
way north to another hiding place. Such places were called 
" stations" of the "underground railroad." In this way thou- 
sands of slaves escaped. A master who followed the fugi- 
tives too far into the North was in danger of injury from 
angry mobs. Some men made it a business to hunt slaves 

1 President Taylor died in 1850 and was succeeded by the Vice-President, 
Millard Fillmore. 



FRICTION CONCERNING SLAVERY 381 

for others, and stories were told of how they tried to use 
the new law to carry back into slavery negroes who were 
rightfully free. 

"Uncle Tom's Cabin." — In 1852 Mrs. Harriet Beecher 
Stowe wrote a story of the life of a slave. Some things 
that she said were true; many were not true. She failed 
to show that there were different kinds of negro slaves, and 
how most of those in the cotton states were only half-civilized 
and quite unlike the fairly well-trained house-servants of 
the border states. Her story was interesting and described 
some abuses that doubtless did occur under bad masters. 
Multitudes of men, women, and children in the North read 
the book and believed that all slavery was like that which 
she described, and that all southern white people were like 
her cruel masters, slave-drivers, and slave-traders. Such 
stories aroused against slavery multitudes whom Garrison 
had failed to reach. 

Stories were told at the South of how the abolitionists dis- 
tributed pamphlets or sent agents into the southern states 
to induce the slaves to run away. The conviction that they 
had been cheated in every compromise steadily gained ground 
among the southerners. Men said that it had been so 
in 1820 and it was so again now. Every attempt to treat 
with the North, they asserted, would have a similar result. 
Instead of the peace which Clay, Webster, and Calhoun had 
hoped for, deeper hatred spread over the land. 

Kansas and Nebraska Bill. — The situation was made 
worse by the rule which Congress adopted in opening for settle- 
ment the Indian country west of Missouri and Iowa. The 
southern leaders were anxious to add new slave territory. 1 
Some of them hoped to obtain Cuba from Spain by purchase, 

1 Iowa had been admitted without slaves in 1846. The admission of Arkan- 
sas in 1836 and Michigan in 1837, and of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin 
in close succession during 1845, 1846, and 1848, had kept the number of states 



3 82 



THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY 



or even to take it by force. Douglas desired to satisfy them 
in order that he might gain their support as Democratic can- 
didate in the next presidential election. Accordingly, when 
Congress divided the upper part of the old Louisiana Purchase 
into Kansas and Nebraska territories, Douglas proposed that 

the inhabitants 
should decide at 
some future time 
whether they 
would permit slav- 
ery or not. This 
was the rule which 
had been applied 
to Utah and New 
Mexico. 

The bill meant 
that the new terri- 
tories were opened 
to slavery if its 
supporters could 
occupy them. This 
broke the agreement made by the Missouri Compromise 
that slavery should not be permitted in the Louisiana 
Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri. It 
was the turn of the anti-slavery men to feel that they were 
wronged. Furthermore, the law soon led to a struggle for 
Kansas, the forerunner of a greater war. 

War in Kansas, 1854-57. — Free-soilers and slave-holders 
were stirred to action by the offer of Kansas to the swiftest 
and strongest party. Settlers poured in from North and 
South. They were colonists sent with the strange mission 
of battling with their neighbors for possession of a fair ter- 

with slaves and without them equal. The admission of California put the free 
states ahead. 




IPO 200 300 400 



Territories from which Kansas and 
Nebraska were Erected 



WAR IN KANSAS 



383 



ritory. 1 Covered wagons which had started for California 
gold-fields with "California or bust" painted on the sides 
put on "Kansas" instead. Adventurers and frontiersmen, 
eager for excitement, joined in the fray. Many Missourians 
crossed the boundary, some to settle with their slaves, others 
merely to help their party win the victory. These men the 



3»»*»vV 










m t "SSL* 



fe£3i- 




SCENE ON THE KANSAS BORDER 

Note the ferry-boat propelled by poles, the stern-wheeled steamboat, and the wagons 



anti-slavery people called "border ruffians." The most deter- 
mined leader of the anti-slavery settlers was John Brown, 
who with four sons, all well armed, fought against the colo- 
nists from the southern states. It was a war of ambushes and 
assaults on settlements. The Missourians succeeded in found- 
ing Atchison and Leavenworth, near the Missouri River, 
while the Free-soilers took up the lands farther back, around 
Lawrence and Topeka. 

The Free-soilers soon outnumbered their opponents. The 
North had the advantage not only in the number ready to 
emigrate to Kansas, but also in money to aid them, and in 

1 The new territories included the great region which now makes up the 
states of Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, part of Colorado, and 
Wyoming. 



384 THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY 

railroads to carry them to the battleground. The conse- 
quence was that the Free-soilers eventually succeeded in organ- 
izing a government without slavery. Besides, the Kansas 
and Nebraska Act had further widened the breach between 
the North and the South. 

Rise of a New Political Party, 1854-1860. - The Kansas 
and Nebraska Act led also to the formation of a new polit- 
ical party. The organization, under the name " Republican,'' 
started in the northwestern states during the summer of 1854, 
and spread rapidly over the entire North. The people of 
the Northwest had long regarded the lands on the Kansas, 
the Platte, and the Missouri rivers as destined for free 
farmers like themselves. They resented a measure which 
upset their plans. Besides, Douglas was interfering with 
another plan. The workingmen of the East had recently 
made a new demand. This was that the government should 
give every man in the United States who had no land and 
desired some a free homestead of 160 acres of western land. 
They expected that their plan would draw many laborers 
from the crowded cities and make wages higher for those 
left behind. Those who took up free lands would buy 
goods, tools, and machinery, and make times better in 
factories and mills and mines. This part of the plan 
pleased the merchants and manufacturers of the East and 
won their support. 

End of the Whig Party. — The new party grew faster 
because the voters in the old parties, especially the Whigs, 
had come to believe that their leaders were more interested 
in securing offices for themselves than in settling the serious 
problems of the nation. The Whig leaders kept saying that 
the question of slavery had been settled by the Compromise 
of 1850. Multitudes of the members of the party thought 
differently and joined the Republicans. The Whig party 
melted away, much as the old Federalist party had disap- 



END OF THE WHIG PARTY 385 

peared. The Democratic party lost many, especially of the 
workingmen, for the same reason. 

The Dred Scott Affair. — In 1857 an event took place which 
stirred the Republicans fully as much as the Kansas and 
Nebraska Act. A negro, Dred Scott, his wife, and two 
daughters, claimed their freedom because their master had 
once taken them North into territory where slavery was un- 
lawful. The Supreme Court of the United States promptly 
decided that according to the law they were still slaves ; that 
settled the matter as far as these negroes were concerned. 
The Chief- Justice, Roger B. Taney, and several justices, 
went further, thinking that the question of slavery could be 
settled if the Supreme Court expressed an opinion upon it. 
Accordingly, the majority of the court announced that the 
Missouri Compromise had been void from the first, because 
Congress had no power to forbid slavery in any territory. 
They also declared that not even the inhabitants of a terri- 
tory could do this, since slaves were property and the Con- 
stitution permitted a man to carry his property into the 
territories. The decision meant that even if the Repub- 
licans could repeal the Kansas and Nebraska Act, they were 
powerless to prevent the spread of slavery into Kansas and 
Nebraska. They thought Taney's decision was bad law. 
Instead of settling the question of slavery once for all, 
Taney, like Douglas, had made the matter worse. 

Abraham Lincoln. — Abraham Lincoln had been practising 
law in Illinois, riding the circuit of the scattered frontier 
courts as was the custom of the day, and voting the Whig 
ticket. He had been a member of Congress from 1847 to 
1849. He had been losing interest in politics, but the Kansas 
and Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott opinion aroused him. 

In 1S58 an Illinois Republican convention nominated him 
for the Senate against Douglas, who was still the great Demo- 
cratic leader. In his speech accepting the nomination Lin- 



3 86 



THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY 



coin declared courageously, "A house divided against itself 
cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure per- 
manently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union 
to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I 
do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one 
thing or all the other." He plainly showed that he wished 
to stop the progress of slavery in the territories, and even 

hinted that he expected that 
the opponents of slavery 
would finally destroy it. 

Lincoln challenged Douglas 
to debate the question before 
the citizens of Illinois. The 
two men presented a striking 
contrast. Douglas was con- 
sidered a great orator and a 
shrewd debater. As he was 
short he was commonly called 
the "Little Giant." Lincoln 
was tall and awkward, but he 
already had the reputation of uttering sayings as wise as 
those of "Poor Richard." His way of reasoning was per- 
fectly clear and straightforward. Before the debates were 
ended he had compelled Douglas to explain that though Con- 
gress, according to the Dred Scott decision, might not forbid 
slavery in the territories, the people of the territories could 
make slave-holding impossible by passing laws hostile to it. 
This statement made the southerners angry at Douglas. 
Lincoln lost the election, but he had won a hearing before 
the whole country and was regarded as one of the leaders of 
the Republican party. 

The young party grew rapidly. In 1856 a majority of the 
northern states voted for the Republican candidate for Presi- 
dent, but the Democrats in the North and the South elected 




James Buchanan 



JOHN BROWN'S RAID 



3«7 



their candidate, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. After the 
Dred Scott affair, the Republicans won other northern states, 
until by 1859 they had more members than the Democrats 
in the House of Representatives. 

John Brown's Raid, 1859. — The southern people were 
alarmed by the growth of a northern political party. They 
knew that the Republican leaders said that their chief object 
was to abolish slavery in the territories, but no southerner 
believed that the Republicans would be satisfied to stop 
there. The abolitionists among them were resolved to destroy 
the system everywhere. Who could tell when they would 
control the whole party? 

An event in the fall of 1859 seemed to give good ground 
for more serious alarm. 
One quiet night in Octo- 
ber, John Brown, with 18 
followers fully armed, 
seized the little Virginia 
village of Harper's Ferry 
with its United States gun 
factory and store of arms. 
It was the first act in a 
strange plan. Brown in- 
tended to arouse the 
slaves in Virginia, put 
arms in their hands, and by their aid provide a mountain 
stronghold for all slaves. There would be a great war 
against slavery carried into the heart of the South, and 
waged mainly by the negroes themselves. The abolitionists 
were too mild for him. "Those men," he said, "are all talk; 
what is needed is action — action!" He seems to have 
thought that northern people would aid him with money and 
arms in a race war in the southern mountains, as they had 
in Kansas. 




Harper's Ferry in 1859 



388 THE QUESTION OE SLAVERY 

Nothing turned out as he hoped. The slaves in the 
neighborhood of Harper's Ferry did not rise. His men raided 
several plantations and told the slaves that they were free, 
but the negroes refused to fight. Within a few hours Brown 
was captured at Harper's Ferry by a military force, under 
command of Colonel Robert E. Lee of the Regular Army. 
Brown and several of his men were tried and hanged 
for murder and treason. Such was the tragic ending of 
a plan over which Brown had brooded for twenty years, 
until he believed that God had called him to free the 
slaves. 

The people of the South were horror-stricken at Brown's 
raid. He had attempted to bring about what they had always 
most dreaded — an armed uprising of the slaves. They could 
not tell how many northern people supported the plan. They 
heard that some abolitionists rejoiced in Brown's deed and 
proclaimed him a martyr. Those at the South who dis- 
liked the slave system, and there were many such, as well as 
those who approved it, denounced the North. It was impos- 
sible to convince them thatBrown's deed was his own, and that 
the great majority of the northern people thought it wrong. 
Each one who had tried to settle the slavery question, Clay, 
Douglas, Taney, and Brown, only made the matter worse. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What important political question divided the people of the United States 
in 1848? What step did California take? What did southern leaders want to do 
before admitting California into the Union? What had Congress done in the 
case of Oregon? 

2. What other questions divided the states with slaves and those without? 
What change in the fugitive slave law did the slave-holders want? 

3. What did the abolitionistsseek 'to do? Why did the majority of north- 
ern people oppose the plan of the abolitionists? What were many northern 
people anxious to do regarding slavery? What, name was given to this party? 
What position did the two great political parties take on the subject in the 
election of 1848? 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 389 

4. What leaders supported Clay's Compromise? How did Clay try to 
satisfy both sides? What method did he use to end the dispute about slavery 
in the new territory? 

5. What new leaders took the places of the older men? Why were the 
Southerners soon dissatisfied with the Compromise? How did the northern 
abolitionists help fugitive slaves? What effect did their methods have on the 
South? 

6. Describe Mrs. Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. What influence did 
it have? What did the South believe about the abolitionists? What did it 
think about compromises with the North? 

7. What rule did Douglas propose for the Kansas and Nebraska territories? 
Why did he make this proposal? Where else had it been adopted? What 
effect did it have on the Missouri Compromise? Whom did it displease? 

8. Why did Douglas's Kansas and Nebraska Act bring on a war in Kansas? 
Who were the fighters? Why did the Free-soilers win? What effect had the 
Kansas and Nebraska Act on the difference between the North and the South? 

9. What new political party was formed in the North? Why did the 
people of the northwestern states favor it? The workingmen of the East? 
The merchants and manufacturers? Why did the Whig party lose its followers? 

10. What did the Supreme Court say in the Dred Scott decision regarding 
the power of Congress? Why did the Republicans think it bad law? 

11. Whom did the Dred Scott decision arouse? What did he say regarding 
slavery in his debates with the "Little Giant"? What did Douglas say which 
made the southern Democrats angry with him? 

12. How did John Brown try to end slavery? What did the southern people 
think of the raid? Whom did they blame? 



EXERCISES 

1. Review Clay's three great compromises proposed to save the Union. 
See pages 316, 332, 378. 

2. Review the story of the Federalist party. 

3. Prepare a summary of this chapter under the headings which follow: 

(a) 1850. Clay's attempt to settle the slave question. 

(b) 1854. The attempt of Douglas to end the difference over slavery 

in the territories. 

(c) 1857. The attempt of Roger B. Taney and the majority of the Su- 

preme Court to settle the difference over slavery in the 
territories. 

(d) 1859. The attempt of John Brown to destroy the entire slave 

system. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

A DIVIDED NATION 

Election of Lincoln. — The election of i860 was intensely 
exciting. Southern leaders, like Senator Jefferson Davis, 
thought that the choice of a Republican President would 
bring ruin upon the South. They were prepared to break 
up the Union unless the government would support the Dred 
Scott decision, that is, protect slave property in the terri- 
tories, whether the inhabitants of them wished it or not. 
When the Democratic convention met in April, they at- 
tempted to force the delegates to embody such a demand 
in the party platform or programme. A majority of the 
delegates were Douglas men and refused. Thereupon the 
delegates of the cotton states withdrew. The others, meet- 
ing later in the year, nominated Stephen A. Douglas as 
President, while the "bolters" nominated John C. Brecken- 
ridge of Kentucky, who at the time was Vice-President. 

The split in the Democratic party led to the success of the 
Republican party, the very thing that the Southern leaders 
declared would be ruinous. The Republican convention 
met in Chicago in May. Seward seemed at first to be the 
favorite candidate, but on the third ballot Abraham Lincoln 
was nominated as President. Earlier in the year Lincoln 
had strengthened his reputation by a speech in New York, in 
the course of which he denied that the party was in any 
way responsible for the John Brown raid. He showed that 
while the Republicans were pledged to resist the spread of 
slavery into the territories, they did not intend to interfere 




After a photograph taken in 1860 



THE SOUTH SECEDES 



39i 



with it in the southern states. Lincoln was commonly con- 
sidered as more cautious than Seward, and he was. counted 
upon to carry Illinois and one or two other doubtful states. 

In the election Lincoln carried all the northern states except 
New Jersey, whose electoral vote was divided between Lin- 
coln and Douglas. Lincoln's electoral vote was 180, while 
his opponents received 123. Douglas and Breckenridge to- 
gether received a much larger popular vote. It was clear, 
therefore, that the Democrats would have won if the dele- 
gates of the cotton states had not insisted upon their 
programme. 

South Carolina's Declaration of Independence. — Imme- 
diately after the election South Carolina decided to withdraw 
from the Union. The legislature 
called a convention which, on 
December 20, repealed the rati- 
fication of the Constitution pass- 
ed in 1788, and declared the 
state a "free and independent 
nation." As the leaders of the 
cotton states had agreed to stand 
together, Mississippi, Florida, 
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, 
and Texas soon followed the 
example of South Carolina. 

A New Republic, 1861. — In 
February, 1861, a convention of 
delegates held at Montgomery, Alabama, took the necessary 
steps to form a new republic, calling it the Confederate 
States of America. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was 
chosen President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia 
Vice-President. The constitution of the Confederate States 
repeated the old constitution almost word for word. The 
Southern leaders were convinced that the old constitution, 




Jefferson Davis 



392 A DIVIDED NATION 

if properly enforced, would make their property in slaves as 
safe as any other kind of property. In the new constitution 
however, they took pains to make this so clear that there 
could be no dispute. 

The Southern People and the old Union. — Most of the 
southern people wished to remain in the Union under which 
they and their fellow-Americans had grown to be a great 
nation. The stories of heroic deeds, of Bunker Hill and 
Yorktown, of leaders like Washington and Jackson, of the 
pioneers who had carried the flag from territory to territory, 
were posssessions of both North and South. For thirty 
years John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis had worked 
as earnestly as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster to find a 
way to preserve the Union. But such men as Davis now 
believed separation better. 

The Doubtful States. — At first only the cotton states 
withdrew from the United States. In the border states — 
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri — slavery had 
so far declined that the majority of the people had little 
interest in defending it. Besides, the business men were 
more closely connected with the North than with the South. 
Their real attachment was to the United States rather than 
to the new Confederate States. 

Between them and the cotton states lay Virginia, North 
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. In them also slavery 
was slowly disappearing. Their closest bonds were, never- 
theless, with their southern neighbors. Virginia was proud 
of the state's share in the nation's history. For a while 
these states waited and watched the course of events. 

What would Buchanan do? — Buchanan's term as Pres- 
ident did not close until three months after South Carolina 
had seceded, and one month after the convention at Mont- 
gomery had begun the organization of the Confederate 
States. The leaders of the new republic were anxious about 



ATTEMPTS TO COMPROMISE 393 

his attitude toward them. They remembered that when 
South Carolina prepared to resist a national law President 
Jackson took such vigorous steps to compel obedience that 
opposition was dangerous. Would Buchanan take similar 
measures ? 

They had not long to wait. In a message to Congress 
Buchanan said that a state had no right to withdraw from 
the Union, but neither the President nor Congress had any 
power to compel the cotton states to return to the Union 
against their will. Such words encouraged the leaders of 
the Confederate States. Southern senators, representatives, 
judges, and post-masters gave up their places under the 
United States government and took service under the new 
republic. 

President Davis and his associates had no doubts about 
the justice of their cause. Few of them had any idea that 
separation would bring on war. South Carolina sent a com- 
mission to Washington to arrange with the United States a 
division of the national debt and a settlement regarding the 
national property within the state. 

Attempts to compromise again. — A compromise had 
saved the Union so many times that men thought the old 
method would serve again, but no plan was found upon 
which they could agree. Lincoln was consulted by the 
Republicans in Congress. He offered to support an amend- 
ment to the Constitution making it clear that Congress had 
no power to interfere with slavery in any southern state. 
The southern Congressmen insisted that the provision be 
added that Congress had no power to exclude slavery from the 
territories of the United States. To this point Lincoln would 
not agree. Since the Kansas and Nebraska Act, slavery in 
the territories was the one thing that the Republicans had 
determined should cease. 

Would it be War or Peace ? — The question in every man's 



394 



A DIVIDED NATION 



mind throughout the winter of 1861 was whether the with- 
drawal of seven cotton states meant war or peaceable dis- 
union. Some dreaded civil war more than dividing the 
country. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, 
one of the Republican leaders in the North, urged peaceable 
separation. "If the cotton states," he wrote, "shall become 

satisfied that they can do 
better out of the Union than 
in it, we insist on letting them 
go in peace." No one knows 
how many agreed with him. 
Among those who shared this 
opinion were the Friends or 
Quakers. Such men loved 
the Union, but did not wish to 
shed blood to keep the South 
in it. They trusted that if 
treated generously the South 
would return of its own free 
will. The Garrison aboli- 
tionists rejoiced over the withdrawal of the cotton states as 
the easiest way to purge the Union of slavery. It was com- 
monly said that Senator Seward was working for a com- 
promise by which the plan of keeping the territories wholly 
for free settlers should be given up. The majority of the 
Republicans looked upon the secession of the cotton states 
as treason, and the men who led it traitors. A compromise 
on the question of the territories was no longer to be 
considered. 

The northern people had gradually gained a strong national 
feeling, while the southerners were first of all loyal to their 
states. The immigrant had come to seek a home and an 
opportunity not in any particular state but in the United 
States. To him the separate states seemed simple subdivi- 




Horace Greeley 



FORT SUMTER 



395 



sions of the country. The multiplication of railroads, the 
close relations of trade, the settlement of the West by the 
children of eastern families, all combined to make Webster's 
cry, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and insep- 
arable," the watchword of the North. Lincoln expressed 
the same feeling by his declaration in his inaugural address 
that "the union of these states is perpetual." Would the 
northern people support such a view by war? 




7} 3k \ 



Map of Forts in Charleston Harbor 



What shall be done with Fort Sumter? — The Confederate 
States had as yet met with no obstacles as an indepen- 
dent republic. Buchanan had finished his term and Lincoln 
had become President. The Confederate States had taken 
possession of national custom-houses, forts, and military 
supplies, worth together about $30,000,000, located within 
their limits. Fort Sumter, on an island in Charleston harbor, 
held out almost alone among the old forts. Its commander, 
Major Robert Anderson of Kentucky, had an officer's 
scruples against abandoning a post of duty. But he needed 
provisions and reinforcements. In January Buchanan had 
sent the Star of the West, with 200 men, arms, ammunition, 
and other supplies, but it was fired upon in Charleston 
harbor and compelled to return to New York. 



396 



A DIVIDED NATION 



What to do about Fort Sumter was Lincoln's first hard prob- 
lem as President. He assured the North and the South that 
the government would not use force unless force was used 
against it. Jefferson Davis said to his supporters that Sum- 
ter would be abandoned without war. Five weeks passed 
after Lincoln's inauguration, and still there was peace. 
Neither side was willing to bear the blame for starting 
a great civil war. Meanwhile Confederate commissioners 
had been sent to Washington to attempt a peaceful settle- 
ment. They were not officially received. On April 8 
President Lincoln notified the governor of South Carolina 
that he intended to supply the fort with provisions. At the 
same time he explained that he would not reinforce the 
garrison or add to the stock of ammunition unless the state 
troops resisted. 




Fort Sumter after the Bombardment 

Fall of Fort Sumter. — On Saturday morning, April 13, 
186 1, the northern newspapers announced that Charleston 
troops were bombarding Fort Sumter. The Confederate 
government at Montgomery had finally concluded to attack 
the fort before it could be relieved. The bombardment began 
early on Friday, April 12, and lasted two days. Anderson and 
his men held out until the fort was in ruins and its wooden 
buildings were on fire. Then they surrendered. They were 



THE CALL TO ARMS 397 

allowed to salute their flag and to depart for the North aboard 
Federal ships which were waiting off the harbor. 

The Call to Arms. — In the North the attack on Fort 
Sumter was the signal which all had dreaded. If the 
Union were not to be dissolved, the government must be 
upheld. This was the sentiment of many northern Demo- 
crats, as well as of the Republicans. Buchanan and 
Douglas l let it be known that they would aid in en- 
forcing the laws and in recovering the property of the 
United States. 

Monday morning, April 15, Lincoln asked the governors 
of the states to supply the United States with 75,000 
soldiers. It was a call to arms. The response, except from 
the border states, went beyond the hopes of the North. 
The first volunteers were chiefly men in militia regiments 
already organized. The Sixth Massachusetts, composed 
of citizens of Concord, Lexington, and the surrounding towns, 
left for Washington within 48 hours. 

The Southern Answer. — The response in the Confederate 
States to the call of Davis for troops was no less prompt and 
generous. A southern leader said, "The anxiety among our 
citizens is not as to who shall go to the wars, but who shall 
stay at home." 

The Border States. — On the outbreak of war, Virginia, 
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas joined the Confed- 
erate States. Eleven states in all joined in the effort to form 
a southern nation. Twenty-two states remained loyal to the 
old government. Richmond was chosen as the permanent 
capital of the Confederacy. The loss of Virginia was an 
especially serious one to the United States. Its nearness to 
Washington placed the capital in great danger. Several 
distinguished Virginia soldiers, among them Robert E. Lee, 

1 Stephen A. Douglas, only 48 years of age, died a few weeks later, but to 
the last used his influence to unite the North. 



398 



A DIVIDED NATION 



thought their duty was with their state and left the Union 
army to serve the South. 

One or two of the border states seemed almost ready to 
follow the example of Virginia and Tennessee. The governor 
of Missouri refused to send any troops, but the timely energy 
of the German citizens of St. Louis, under the leadership of 







t^n" 1 **!.^ 




The White House of the Confederacy 
Residence of President Jefferson Davis at Richmond 

Captain Lyon, saved the state for the Union. Maryland 
also was doubtful for a time, and the Sixth Massachusetts 
regiment was attacked by a mob as it was marching through 
Baltimore. The western counties of Virginia seceded from 
Virginia and formed a new state, West Virginia, which was 
later admitted into the Union. The people of east Tennessee 
were equally opposed to secession, but did not carry their 
opposition so far. The border states remained in the Union 
partly because of Lincoln's tact and generosity in dealing 
with them. 

QUESTIONS 

i. Why did the southern Democrats divide their' party? Whom did the 
two parts nominate as candidates for President? Why did the Republicans 
nominate Lincoln? Why was Lincoln successful in the election of i860? What 
was the programme or demand of the southern leaders? 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 399 

2. What did South Carolina do after the election of Lincoln? What states 
followed its example? Whom did the Confederate States choose as President 
and Vice-President? What kind of a constitution did they adopt? 

3. What states wavered between the Union and the new republic? Which 
way did each incline? 

4. What did Buchanan think of the withdrawal of the cotton states? What 
was the effect of his attitude? 

5. What concession was Lincoln willing to make to prevent war between 
the northern and southern states? What did the leaders of the cotton states 
demand? What plan did some leaders like Horace Greeley advocate? Others 
like Seward? 

6. Why were the northern people more attached to the Union than the 
southern? 

7. What was the first obstacle that the Confederate States met? Why did 
Lincoln hesitate to send supplies and reinforcements to Fort Sumter? Why 
did the Confederate government finally attack Fort Sumter? What was the 
result? 

8. What was the result of the call for troops in the northern states? In 
the southern states? In the border states? 

0. Why did distinguished Virginians like Robert E. Lee leave the army 
of the United States to aid the Confederate cause? What states joined in the 
attempt to form a new republic in the South? Which ones were divided in 
sentiment and action? 

EXERCISES 

1. How long was it after South Carolina seceded before war began by the 
attack on Fort Sumter? 

2. Wherever possible gather stories of the topics mentioned in this chap- 
ter from persons who were living when the events happened. 

Important Dates : 

April 14, 1861. Fort Sumter captured by the troops of the Confederate 
States, beginning the Civil War. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR 

Resources of the North and the South. — The Southern 
leaders supposed that " cotton was king," but war proved 
that the kingdom of corn, wheat, coal, and iron was stronger. 
The planters were so occupied in raising cotton, and to some 
extent rice and sugar, that they did not build factories, 
open coal mines, and dig iron ore. Their system of railroads 
was incomplete and poorly equipped. English or northern 
ships carried their cotton to the market. Most of the 
steamboat lines which ran on western rivers belonged to 
northern companies. The food of the whole country was 
raised mainly on northern and western fields. 

In war such things count. Armies must be fed, supplies 
must be carried rapidly, the wear and tear of campaigning 
must be met by new equipment. A people whose chief 
occupation is a particular kind of agriculture is at a great 
disadvantage in struggling with a people provided with a 
well-developed system of manufactures and a boundless food 
supply. The South was obliged to look to Europe for the 
military supplies that it could not produce and to pay for 
them with its cotton. It could not, however, send cotton 
abroad unless its ports were kept open. As the South had 
neither war-ships nor sufficient ship yards to build them, 
its trade with England and Europe was sure to be cut off 
sooner or later by a blockade. 

The South was also at a disadvantage in numbers. The 
white population of the states in the Confederacy was 



GEOGRAPHY OF THE WAR 



401 



5,400,000, while the total population of the Union, including 
the border states, was 22,000,000. The disadvantage of 
the South in numbers, as compared with the North, was 
partially overcome by the employment of slaves not only in 
raising food but^also as teamsters and laborers in the army. 
Furthermore, many citizens of the border states fought in 
the southern armies. 




Railroads and Navigable Waterways of the South, 186 i 



Geography of the War. — The leaders of both North and 
South sought to grasp any advantage which their own situa- 
tion or that of their enemies offered. As the navy remained 
loyal to the national government, the North possessed the 
sea power. It could choose points of attack on the Atlantic 
coast or on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Southern sea- 
ports soon felt the weight of war, while no northern port 
was threatened. 

The great Appalachian barrier served to divide the war 
into two distinct fields of operation, that of Virginia and 
that of the Mississippi Valley. The barrier was pierced by 



40. 



THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR 



northern railroads running from New York, Philadelphia, 
and Baltimore westward, and by southern railroads from 
Richmond to Knoxville and Chattanooga, and from Charles- 
ton to Memphis. 

Two valleys played an important part — ■ the Shenandoah 
Valley and the Great Appalachian Valley of eastern Tennes- 
see. The Shenandoah has been compared to a gun trained 
on Washington, through which troops might be discharged if 
the national armies moved southward toward Richmond. 




Scene in the Shenandoah Valley 

The Blue Ridge on the eastern side of the Shenandoah, with 
its many "gaps," served also as a screen behind which an 
army might move north or south, bursting through upon 
some weak point of the Union line. The valley could not 
be used equally well by the national armies, for it led away 
from Richmond toward the southwest. Through the Appa- 
lachian Valley, in like manner, a southern army could be 
thrown into Kentucky if the national armies advanced along 
the line of the Mississippi River. 

Except for the danger from the Shenandoah, the geography 
of Virginia seemed to favor the North. Chesapeake Bay and 
the James River offered an easy approach to Richmond. A 
direct march overland from Washington to Richmond was 
hampered by rivers running from the Piedmont hills to the 
coast, each furnishing a natural line of defense. 



GEOGRAPHY OF THE WAR 



403 



West of the Appalachians the advantage of position lay also 
with the North. The Mississippi was a great highway lead- 
ing either north or south, but the North could build armed 
steamboats faster than the South. At only a few points in 
its course, such as Colum- ^ 

bus in Kentucky, and 
Vicksburg in Mississippi, 
does the river touch 
high plateaus or bluffs 
which can be fortified. It 
is unlike a river flowing 
between hilly shores 
which offer a multitude 
of places for defense. 
Two other rivers, the 
Cumberland and the Ten- 
nessee, which empty in- 
to the Ohio near where 
it joins the Mississippi, 
are navigable, the first 
to a point many miles above Nashville, the other as far as 
northern Alabama. In Tennessee, near the Kentucky border, 
they are only twelve miles apart. 

Railroads were almost as important as rivers. It is true 
that raiders could tear up tracks and burn bridges, but trained 
workmen could soon replace both. Railroad junctions were 
especially important. Manassas Junction was such a place, 
where the railroad from Washington to Lynchburg was joined 
by a railroad from the Shenandoah Valley through Manassas 
Gap. Bowling Green, in Kentucky, was another, situated 
near the junction of the Louisville and Nashville and the 
Memphis and Ohio railroads. Still another was Corinth, 
Mississippi, where the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, 
the only through line from the lower Mississippi to the coast, 




Scene on the Gateway to the North 
The Shenandoah River near Harper's Ferry 



4°4 



THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR 



crossed a railroad from Mobile. Chattanooga, in southeast- 
ern Tennessee, was important because of river, mountain 
pass, and railroad, for there the Tennessee River breaks 
through the Cumberland Plateau, the eastern wall of the 
Appalachian barrier. There also important railroads met 
connecting the cities on the Mississippi 
with Charleston and Richmond. 

Soldiers North and South. — Both 
North and South had trained officers to 
command at least a part of their armies. 
These men were graduates of West Point, 
had been in the regular army, and some 
of them had fought in the Mexican War. 
The regular army numbered only 16,000 
men. The chief reliance was upon volun- 
teers. The Southerners, more accustomed 
to outdoor life, and the planters to leader- 
ship, were readily transformed into sol- 
diers. The Northern volunteers came 
fresh from farms, factories, shops, and 
desks. Many of them were led into 
battle before they had been taught how 
to handle a gun. Others, both in the North and the South, 
had received valuable training in militia regiments and in 
military schools. 

As the South stood on the defensive, simply insisting on 
its right to secede and form a separate nation, the Southern 
soldier was righting on his own ground and in a climate to 
which he was accustomed. The North, declaring that the 
Union should be preserved, had the task of occupying the 
southern states and compelling their return to the Union. 
Its soldiers fought, in a sense, in a foreign country. Vast 
regions of the South were still a wilderness, with few roads 
and bridges. If the Northern armies succeeded in forcing 




Union Soldier in 
Uniform 



BLOCKADE OF THE SOUTH 



405 



their way far into the South, they had to guard a hundred 
places along their line of advance, or be cut off from their 
sources of supply. 

Blockade of the South. — On April 19, five days after the 
fall of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln issued a proclamation 
declaring the ports of South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Florida in a state of blockade. 
A week later the other Confederate ports 
were included. At first it was a "paper" 
blockade, that is, the navy was not large 
enough to station ships before each port in 
order to carry out the proclamation. 

The blockade proved a huge undertak- 
ing. The coast of the Confederacy stretched 
from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, and 
contained 200 harbors. Every kind of 
vessel, even old ferryboats, had to be 
pressed into use as men-of-war. The 
lines of blockade were gradually drawn 
closer until within a year trade from south- 
ern ports almost entirely ceased. Only one- 
fiftieth as much cotton was exported in 1862 as in i860. 

The Southern people made great efforts to outwit the " sea- 
dogs" watching their coast. Shipbuilders in the South, the 
West Indies, and in Great Britain constructed swift block- 
ade runners, with sides so low that at a little distance in 
the night they were almost invisible. These vessels often 
succeeded in escaping from unfrequented harbors, with car- 
goes of cotton, bound for the Bermudas and the Bahamas. 
They brought back supplies for the army or goods which the 
South could not produce. 

Many stories are still told in the South about the bravery 
and success of the captains of the blockade runners. When a 
ship was able to bring a cargo from Europe the profits were 




Confederate Sol- 
dier ln Uniform 



406 THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR 

worth the trouble. At one time cotton was $2.50 a pound in 
Liverpool, though it was only four or five cents a pound in 
Charleston. 

The Confederacy seeks allies. — It was so important for 
the South to trade with England and Europe that its leaders 
sought help abroad to break the blockade. They needed 
money and ships. They were in much the same situation 
as the colonies, which obtained supplies and a navy from 
Europe during the Revolution. 

The governing classes of England and France sympathized 
with the South. They were eager to profit by the free trade 
which the Confederacy offered. There was no danger that 
the Southerners, like the Northerners, would become their 
rivals in manufacturing. Many shrewd English and French 
statesmen were delighted that the great republic seemed fall- 
ing into pieces. The workingmen of England, however, and 
most of the middle class, believed that the North was fight- 
ing the battle of free labor. 

On account of the scarcity of cotton, English merchants 
and manufacturers wished the war to end speedily. Many 
cotton mills were closed and their employees dismissed. It 
is doubtful whether even the Southerners suffered as much as 
the employees of the English cotton factories. Many were 
kept from starvation only by food which the British govern- 
ment furnished. 

England and the South. — Before the year 1861 was ended, 
England was nearly drawn into the struggle. The Confederate 
government sent two commissioners, Mason and Slidell, to 
persuade the English and the French to acknowledge that the 
Confederacy was an independent nation. The English gov- 
ernment had already announced that it would treat the 
Southerners as "belligerents," that is, as persons having a 
right to carry on war, rather than as rebels against the United 
States. This action made many people in the North very 



ENGLAND AND THE SOUTH 



407 




The Cruiser " Alabama : 



angry. Had England formally acknowledged the independ- 
ence of the South the United States would have taken the act 
as a declaration of war. The excitement was increased when 
news came that the commander of a Union war-ship had 
stopped the British steamer Trent, on which Mason and Sli- 
dell were traveling, and had arrested them. The act caused 
much rejoicing in the North, but President Lincoln at once 
saw that it was contrary to the principles that the United 
States had defended in 181 2. He felt that the United States 
could not deny the right of 
search at one time and 
make use of it at another. 
Consequently he ordered 
the release of the commis- 
sioners. The English gov- 
ernment had already de- 
spatched troops to Canada, 
and but for the influence 

of Queen Victoria would have tried to take advantage of the 
blunder to humiliate the United States. 

No sooner had this question been settled, than the United 
States learned that English ship-builders were constructing 
war vessels for the South. Two ships, the Florida and the 
Alabama, sailed from England in 1862 to fight for the Con- 
federate cause. They were not strong enough to attack north- 
ern cities or to break the blockade of southern ports. They 
therefore ranged the seas, destroying Union merchant vessels 
until they were themselves captured. In permitting these 
vessels to sail the English government was in the wrong, and 
was later compelled to pay heavy damages. 

Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. — With soldiers untrained 
no great battles could occur in the first months of the 
war. There was fighting in Missouri between the Unionists 
and Secessionists, and the Unionists succeeded in holding 



408 



THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR 



the state. In Kentucky ballots rather than bullets decided 
whether the state should secede. When the votes were 
counted it was found that a large majority were Union men. 




Map of Campaigns m Virginia 

In the western counties of Virginia, Northern troops drove 
out a small army sent by the governor of the state. The 
Northern leader was George B. McClellan, a West Pointer 
who had fought in the Mexican War. 

It was near Washington that the first important battle 



BATTLE OF BULL RUN 409 

took place. The Confederate General Beauregard was in 
command of a small army at Manassas Junction, while Gen- 
eral Joseph E. Johnston, with a few thousand more troops, was 
at Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, not far from the rail- 
road running through Manassas Gap to Manassas Junction. 
The aged General Scott, who was still at the head of the 
United States army, and his second in command, General 
Irwin McDowell, forced by the impatience of the North, 
planned an attack on Beauregard. Part of the plan was that 
a body of Federal troops in the Shenandoah Valley should 
keep Johnston busy. 

It soon appeared that railroads and telegraphs were as 
important in war as in commerce. Johnston escaped from his 
enemy in the Shenandoah and began sending reinforcements 
over the Manassas Gap Railroad to Beauregard. Scott, hear- 
ing the news from the Shenandoah, telegraphed McDowell 
that he had two armies to fight rather than one. 

McDowell persisted in making the attack. His plan of 
battle was excellent, and everything went well until about 
three o'clock in the afternoon. By that time the Union 
and the Confederate troops were equally exhausted. Only 
one part of the Confederate line, commanded by General 
Thomas J. Jackson, stood firm. A brother officer exclaimed, 
"See Jackson, he stands like a stone wall." Henceforth 
Jackson bore the name of "Stonewall." Just then another 
division of Johnston's men appeared, brought by the rail- 
road. They were fresh and were skillfully led. The exhausted 
Union soldiers wavered, broke, and fled. In the terrible 
panic which followed, many never stopped until they reached 
the neighborhood of Washington, thirty miles distant. 

Lessons of the Battle. — The North and South learned 
valuable lessons from the battle. The Northern people had 
counted upon a speedy victory. Such a defeat was a terrible 
blow, but after the first gloom passed off, the people set 



4 io THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR 

about preparing for a more serious struggle than they had 
expected. Some of the Southern soldiers thought that the 
war was ended and started for home. Their army was almost 
as disorganized by victory as the Northern army was by 
defeat. 

The officers on both sides realized that time was needed 
to transform the brave and self-sacrificing volunteers into 
real soldiers, capable of maneuvering on the battlefield 
as well as on the parade ground. McClellan, an excellent 
organizer and drill-master, took charge of the Northern 
army, now called the Army of the Potomac, while Johnston 
commanded the Southern or Army of Northern Virginia. 
Robert E. Lee acted as President Davis's chief-of-staff. Gen- 
eral Scott, weakened by age, soon withdrew, so that the Army 
of the Potomac was directed by McClellan alone. 

Use of Sea Power. — The North used its rapidly con- 
structed navy not only to establish a blockade before Southern 
ports, but also to occupy important points along the coast of 
the Confederacy. In August, 1861, Fort Hatteras on the 
North Carolina shore was captured, and in November Port 
Royal, one of the best harbors on the coast, only 50 miles 
from Charleston, South Carolina. 1 A little later the North 
gained a foothold at the mouth of the Savannah River. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What advantages had the North at the beginning of the Civil War? 
The South? Of what use were the slaves to the South during the War? 

2. Why did the North have the advantage on the ocean? How did the 
Appalachian barrier affect the war? What railroads pierced it? To which 
army were the Shenandoah and the Great Appalachian valleys of most use? 
Was Richmond easy of approach? 

3. What rivers formed great highways into the South? Why were they 
useful for the North and harmful for the South? 

1 Fort Caroline, the French Huguenot settlement, destroyed by Menendez 
in 1565, was at Port Royal. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 



411 



4. What railroads were especially important in the Civil War? Were they 
as useful as rivers? Why were Vicksburg, Manassas Junction, Bowling Green, 
Corinth, and Chattanooga important places? 

5. What advantages did the Southern soldiers have over the Northern? 

6. What did it mean to declare the Southern ports in a state of blockade? 
How did the blockade affect the South? What were the blockade runners 
doing? Why did they risk much? 

7. What help did the Confederates seek? Who sympathized with them? 
Who did not? What class in England suffered greatly from the Civil War in 
the United States? 

8. Why did the United States have trouble with England? Why did the 
United States release Mason and Slidell? Who in England did help the South? 
What should the English government have done in the matter? 

9. Describe the first important battle of the Civil War. What part did 
the railroad and the telegraph have in the battle? Why did the Confederate 
army win? What did the officers of the North and of the South learn from the 
battle? 

10. What successes had the Northern navy before the end of the first year? 



EXERCISES 



1. Find on a map (see page 401), the rivers, railroads, and important towns 
mentioned in this chapter, and tell why each one was mentioned. 

2. How was the attempt of the South to secure help from England and 
France like the attempt of the colonies to secure help from France, Holland, 
and Spain in the Revolution? 



Important Date: 
July 21, 1861. 



The Battle of Bull Run. 




Confederate Battle 
Flag 



CHAPTER XXXVI 



STORY OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT 

A Long Struggle. — Compared with other recent wars, 
the Civil War had by 1862 lasted a long time. Two years 
before, France had begun a war with Austria in April and it 
had ended in July. A few years later, a war between Aus- 




The Line of Defense in January, 1862 

tria and Prussia opened in June and closed in August. The 
Civil War was to last three years longer, although within a 
year and a half it was clear that the North was slowly gain- 
ing the advantage. The change was due to campaigns in 
the Mississippi Valley, for the positions of the armies in 
Virginia remained almost the same in spite of the most des- 
perate fighting. 



CONFEDERATE LINE OF DEFENSE BROKEN 413 

Confederate Line of Defense Broken. — In January, 
1862, the Confederate line of defense ran from the fortifica- 
tions at Columbus on the Mississippi River, through Fort 
Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson, twelve 
miles away on the Cumberland, past Bowling Green, to Cum- 
berland Gap. The position of Columbus was very strong. It 
was situated on bluffs so high that it could not be reached by 
guns fired from armed steamers, while the plunging fire of 
its batteries would destroy any vessels which attempted to 
pass. If the Confederate line was to be broken, the attack 
must be made elsewhere. The Union officers concluded to 
make it at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. The expedition 
was commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant, a graduate from 
West Point, who had fought in the Mexican War. 




A Mississippi Iron-clad Gunboat 

General Grant's army was assisted by armored gunboats, 
a new kind of war vessel. Seven had been built at St. Louis 
in 1861. They did not resemble ordinary river steamboats. 
Their sides were sloping and built of heavy oak planking. 
In front the oak was twenty-four inches thick and covered 
by iron plates two and a half inches thick. The sides next to 
the machinery were also covered with iron. As the gunboats 
moved through the water they looked like great clumsy 
turtles. 1 

1 A few armored vessels had been used in Europe nine years before in the 
Crimean War. 



414 STORY OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT 

Capture of Fort Donelson. — The little war fleet steamed 
up the Tennessee to within 600 yards of Fort Henry and com- 
pelled it to surrender after a lively cannonade. A similar 
attack on Fort Donelson was not so successful, for two of the 
gunboats had their steering gear shot away and drifted about 
helplessly. Grant ordered an immediate attack by his army, 
and after severe fighting the Confederate commander sur- 
rendered with 14,000 men. The news of this success filled 
the North with rejoicing. It was the first important vic- 
tory which the Union troops had gained. 

The loss of the two forts which guarded the upper waters 
of the Tennessee and the Cumberland threw the Confederate 
defense into confusion. Both Columbus and Bowling Green 
were abandoned. Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, situ- 
ated on the Cumberland River, was also abandoned by the 
Confederate troops within ten days. Light gunboats steamed 
up the Tennessee to northern Mississippi and Alabama, 
destroying or capturing Southern steamboats and supplies. 
The Confederate armies established a new line of defense 
running from Memphis through Corinth and Chattanooga. 
This line was also broken after one of the severest battles 
of the war, that of Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing on the 
Tennessee River. 1 Corinth was then taken, and a gun- 
boat fleet moved down the Mississippi and forced Memphis 
to surrender. The Confederates held thereafter no other 
important fortified place on the Mississippi River except 
Vicksburg, for New Orleans had meanwhile been captured. 

Capture of New Orleans. — The capture of New Orleans 
was an exploit of the Union navy, under the leadership of 

1 At Pittsburg Landing, about twenty miles from Corinth, Grant acted as 
if he had forgotten how near the enemy was. The Confederates under Albert 
Sidney Johnston surprised him and drove his army back in disorder during the 
first day's fighting. The great Confederate leader was killed in battle. Dur- 
ing the following night General Buell reinforced Grant with a fresh army. The 
second day Grant drove the Confederates off the field. 



FEDERAL SUCCESSES 415 

Flag-officer David G. Farragut, a native of Tennessee, who 
had remained loyal to the national government. Farragut 
fought his way, April 24, past the forts which guarded the 
river below the city. A Federal army soon landed and took 
possession. The fall of New Orleans, the largest city and 
the principal seaport of the South, was a great blow to the 
Confederacy. It opened the lower Mississippi to Northern 
fleets and made the blockade easier. 

Nothing further was accomplished in the West by either 
side for several months. General Bragg led a large Confed- 
erate army through the Appalachian Valley into Kentucky, 
hoping to rally the people of that state to the Southern 
cause. He was checked in the neighborhood of Louis- 
ville. He then retreated into Tennessee, where at the close 
of the year he fought the desperate battle of Murfreesboro, 
but failed to dislodge the Federals from the central part 
of the state. The beginning of 1863 found the Federal 
troops in the positions they had won in Tennessee and 
northern Mississippi. 

Federal Plans in Virginia. — The partial success of the Fed- 
eral plans in the West was not repeated in the East. The 
hopes of the North were centered on the Army of the Potomac 
which McClellan had organized and which numbered 185,000 
men. McClellan planned to transport this army to the old 
Yorktown peninsula and to advance upon Richmond. In 
March, 1862, the appearance in Hampton Roads of a new 
Confederate fighting ship threatened his plan, for a day at 
least. 

"Merrimac" and "Monitor." — Upon the outbreak of the 
war the national government had abandoned the navy yard 
in Norfolk, Virginia. A powerful frigate, the Merrimac, had 
been set on fire and then sunk. The Confederates raised it, 
cut away its masts, and boxed the main part of the deck with 
sloping sides covered with heavy iron plates. It was a much 




416 STORY OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT 

stronger vessel than any of the gunboats recently completed 
at St. Louis. 

On March 8 the Merrimac steamed out of Norfolk and 
attacked the frigates on blockade duty in Hampton Roads. 
One it rammed and sank, another it set on fire. The cannon 
balls of the Union guns glanced from its iron plates like rubber 
balls. Its commander, satisfied with his day's work, steamed 
back to Norfolk, expecting to destroy the rest of the fleet 

the next day. When the 
news of what had happen- 
ed reached Washington, 
the government was thrown 
into a panic, for President 
Lincoln and his officials 
believed that the Merrimac 

would move up the Po- 

The " Monitor " and the " Merrimac " , _ , 

tomac and fire on the 

capital. The sea power appeared to have passed to the 

Confederates. 

Fortunately for the Union cause, John Ericsson, a Swedish 
engineer, had just completed in the Brooklyn navy yard a 
vessel equally formidable, called the Monitor. Its deck was 
raised only a few feet above the water line. Upon the deck 
was placed a round gun-house or turret, turned by machin- 
ery, so that the two heavy guns could be pointed in any 
direction. Those who saw it for the first time compared it to 
a "cheese-box on a raft." 

When the Merrimac moved out of Norfolk, on March 9, to 
complete the destruction of the Federal fleet, it was met by 
this strange antagonist, scarcely one-fourth its size. For 
four hours the two cannonaded each other. The Monitor 
had the advantage in rapidity of motion, so that it could 
avoid the heavy blows of the Merrimac's ram. Finally the 
Merrimac gave up the fight and retreated to Norfolk. Both 



GAINS AND LOSSES 417 

sides claimed the victory, but the Merrimac did not come out 
again, and two months later it was blown up by its own men 
when they were obliged to abandon Norfolk. 

The battle of the iron-clads in Hampton Roads interested 
the whole world. Builders of naval ships in England and 
Europe saw that the older kind of battle-ship was now useless 
and that they had to reconstruct their navies. The "Super- 
Dreadnought" of to-day does not much resemble the little 
Monitor, but the use of the turret is the same. 

Winning Victories and losing a Campaign. — The success 
of the Monitor enabled McClellan to begin his campaign. 
His army was carried down to the neighborhood of York- 
town by water. It was well organized, and the soldiers had 
confidence in their leader. McClellan was a good manager. 
He made full use of railroad and telegraph. As his army 
marched forward a telegraph line was run to his new head- 
quarters. He could telegraph to the President or the Sec- 
retary of War at any moment. If the army paused, wires 
were run to the headquarters of every division of troops, so 
that McClellan could send his orders instantly. 

McClellan was not a "fighter" like Grant. He listened 
to rumors which declared that the Confederates had more 
soldiers than he, although he had twice as many. He was 
angry because the government kept McDowell with 40,000 
men near Washington, instead of sending them to aid in the 
capture of Richmond. Just at that time Jackson had thrown 
the Washington officials into a panic by a raid down the 
Shenandoah Valley as far as the Potomac. McClellan won sev- 
eral victories, but was finally obliged to abandon the attempt 
to capture Richmond, although once he was within four 
miles of the city. The commander of the Confederate army 
at first was Joseph E. Johnston, but he was wounded and 
General Lee took his place. 

Lee's Successes. — Some weeks later, in the last days of 



4i8 



STORY OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT 



August, 1862, Lee severely defeated a Union army a second 
time on the old field of Bull Run, and drove it back on Wash- 
ington. It was his turn to plan an invasion. In September 
ue marched north, east of the Blue Ridge, and crossed the 
p otomac into Maryland. This was an attempt to carry the 
war on to Union soil and to relieve Virginia. McClellan was 




A Crossing of Bull Run near the Battle Field 
After a photograph taken in 1862 

recalled from the Peninsula to defend Washington. On Sep- 
tember 17, with an army twice as large as Lee's, he checked 
Lee at Antietam. His methodical caution permitted Lee to 
return to Virginia. McClellan was now removed from com- 
mand. In December, a new commander, General Burnside, 
recklessly hurled the Union army against Lee on the heights 
behind Fredericksburg, and was repulsed with frightful 
losses. More than twelve thousand of his best troops were 
left on the battle field. After that the armies rested and the 
year closed in Virginia much as it had opened. Gloom and 
discouragement prevailed in the North. Two years had 
passed, and the South was unconquered. Instead, it was 
rejoicing in victories. 

A New Weapon, January i, 1863. — In this time of disap- 
pointment Lincoln decided to try a new weapon against the 



THE SLAVES SET FREE 



419 



South. During the war the slaves had remained faithful to 
their masters, generally in ignorance of what it all meant. 
They raised the food which supplied the Confederate armies, 
or acted as teamsters and laborers, or as servants to the of- 
ficers. Their work relieved the Southerners so that more 
men could serve as soldiers. 

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln announced that henceforth the 
slaves in all the Confederate 
states not at that time held by 
Union troops would be considered 
as free. He hoped that this 
would weaken the South. It 
would mean that wherever North- 
ern armies went after that date 
the slaves would be made free 
and cease to support the Confed- 
erates. 

Lincoln hoped for even more 
from his emancipation proclama- 
tion. There were increasing num- 
bers of people in England and in 

the North who looked upon slavery as a great wrong. 
Lincoln himself said, "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is 
wrong," but he wanted to save the Union, and "not either 
to save or destroy slavery." He thought that was for the 
Southern states to do. He said, "If I could save the Union 
without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save 
it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could 
save it by freeing some, and leaving others alone, I would 
also do that." He finally decided that he could save the 
Union only by destroying slavery. 

Results of the Emancipation Proclamation. — The only 
immediate effect of the decision was to encourage those in the 
North opposed to slavery and to win the sympathy of the 




Robert E. Lee 



420 STORY OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT 

English people. Abolitionists and Unionists were now 
closely united in a common cause, for the success of the 
North meant both the saving of the Union and the freeing 
of slaves. 

Lincoln's Plan of paying the Owners of Slaves. — Slavery 
had been gradually breaking down in the loyal border states 
and in the other slave states wherever the Union army went. 
In such places the negroes were roaming about working for 
whomsoever they pleased and whenever they pleased. Many 
of them found employment as soldiers, or laborers about the 
Union camps. In 1861 Congress had freed the slaves in the 
District of Columbia and had paid the owners for their loss. 
Lincoln was anxious to extend the same arrangement to the 
border states. He proposed that Congress in like manner 
compensate all owners of slaves in the border states and in 
the South who would recognize the Union, but such plans 
were soon forgotten in the heat of war. 

Will the Union fail? — The third year opened darker than 
ever for the Union. Lincoln's proclamation of Emancipation 
gave offense to the northern Democrats, who thought that 
the President had no power to interfere with slavery in the 
states whether in time of peace or war. Lincoln had said 
that he could not in time of peace, but that the war gave 
him the power. Besides, the Democrats had never believed 
Lincoln capable of saving the Union. Men asked whether 
it would not be better to yield to the South and stop so 
costly a war. Many of the soldiers were weary of the strug- 
gle. Officers said that a thousand deserted every week. The 
government was unable to obtain sufficient volunteers in 
some states, especially in New York, and drafted men — 
that is, chose them by lot — for the army. 

Cost of the War. — The expenses of the national govern- 
ment before the outbreak of the Civil War had been small, 
reaching in i860 only to the sum of $63,000,000 a year. 



COST OF THE WAR 421 

They were nearly twenty times that before the war closed. 
At first Congress was afraid to lay heavy taxes, lest the people 
should lose their enthusiasm to preserve the Union. By 1862 
Congress began to tax everything. Among the taxes was one 
like the Stamp Tax of 1765, providing for the use of stamps on 
receipts, legal papers, and other documents. Congress also 
authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to borrow large 
sums, giving interest-bearing bonds in return. In 1862 it 
was decided to issue "Greenbacks" instead of depending 
alone on taxes and on selling bonds. The Greenbacks were 
like the Continental money issued during the Revolutionary 
War. Prices in paper money rose until they were more than 
twice as high as prices in gold or silver. Very little coin 
was in circulation. In order to sell its bonds the government 
aided in the establishment of National Banks, permitting 
them to issue bank notes if they bought government bonds 
of a value greater than the amount of the notes issued. 

If the National government found difficulties in raising 
money, the Confederate government had difficulties still 
greater. It relied on the cotton crop as a means of borrow- 
ing money in Europe, but the cotton could not be exported. 
It also issued paper money, which lost value much faster than 
the Greenbacks. 

Gettysburg, July, 1863. — In May, 1863, the Union army 
made an attempt to march overland against Richmond, 
only to be defeated again by Lee at Chancellorsville. But 
the victory was costly to the Confederates, for during the 
battle "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally shot by his own 
men. 

General Lee concluded to carry the war again into the 
northern states. He believed that a decisive victory near 
Philadelphia or Baltimore would end the struggle. The 
northern Democrats would rise against the Republican Presi- 
dent. Their sons would cease volunteering in the Union 



422 



STORY OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT 



army. The bankers would refuse to lend their money. 
England and France would recognize the Confederacy as an 
independent republic. 

Lee advanced, this time by way of the Shenandoah Valley, 
and crossed Maryland into Pennsylvania. Once his cavalry 
approached within three miles of Harrisburg. General George 
G. Meade was now in command of the Union army. He 



f #' 




The Gettysburg National Military Park 

Looking southwest over the fields across which Pickett charged. Round top 

at the upper left part. The " clump of trees" in the middle distance 

met Lee at the little town of Gettysburg. The two armies 
took up stations on parallel ridges. The Confederates were 
on Seminary Ridge, named for a Lutheran school situated 
there. The Union army was a mile away on Cemetery Ridge, 
where the town cemetery was located. The battle raged for 
two days without decisive result, although the Confederates 
appeared to be gaining. 

On the third day, July 3, 1863, Lee decided to strike a deci- 
sive blow. General Pickett was ordered to charge the center 
of the Union line, which was under the command of General 
Hancock. For two hours before the charge 115 cannon bom- 
barded the Union army. When Lee thought that it had 
been thrown into confusion, Pickett, with 15,000 Confederate 
veterans, advanced across a valley of orchards, iields, and 



GETTYSBURG AND VICKSBURG 423 

ravines, and up the slopes of the ridge. Two of the bravest 
officers of the Civil War were pitted against each other, Han- 
cock against Pickett. Pickett's men advanced. Shot poured 
into their ranks from every side. Men fell by companies. 
And yet on they went, up the hill. A hundred or so reached 
the Union line and fought hand to hand, only to fall or be 
made prisoners. 

The battle of Gettysburg stopped the invasion of the 
North. On the Fourth of July Lee slowly, painfully, sadly 
returned to Virginia. The crisis for the North was past. 
But at what a cost! Lee had left behind 28,000 men, killed, 
wounded, and missing; Meade, 23,000. This was the end of 
the fighting in Virginia in 1863. 

The Capture of Vicksburg, July 3, 1863. — The third day 
of July, 1863, was a memorable day in the Civil War. On 
the same day that Meade turned Lee back, Grant captured 
Vicksburg. This was a natural fortress set on high bluffs, 
footed with marshes and rivers. 

Since Grant's successes on the Mississippi in 1862, he had 
been preparing for the capture of Vicksburg. The Union 
army tried to take the town first by assault, but failing, settled 
down to a regular siege. The people of Vicksburg still tell 
of the horrors of the last weeks of the siege — how they were 
obliged to hide in caves to avoid bursting shells; how, finally, 
they were forced to eat shoe-leather to keep from starving; 
how fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons died in the 
trenches. 

The Turning of the Tide. — The Confederates lost an army 
of 30,000 with the surrender of Vicksburg. Three states, 
Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, were cut off from the rest 
of the Confederacy. Union fleets sailed up and down the 
Mississippi. The Mississippi Valley lay at the mercy of the 
Union armies. 



424 STORY OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT 



QUESTIONS 

i. What were the chief points in the Confederate line of defense at the 
beginning of 1S0:? 

3. Where did Grant begin the attack on the Confederate line of defense? 
Describe the gunboats which assisted him. Why was the capture of Tort Henry 
and Fort Donelson regarded as a great loss to the Confederate cause and a 
great gain to the Union? What other points did the Union army of the West 
capture during the campaign? 

3. Who captured New Orleans? Why was its capture a great loss foi 
the Confederate States? What advantage did its capture give to the United 
States? 

4. What did General Bragg try to do? 

5. What was McClellan's plan in 1S02? What would have been the result 
of the success of the Merrimacf Describe the Merrimac and the Monitor. 
Whv were Europeans interested in the battle of the Merrimac and tht Monitor? 

0. In what ways was McClellan a great leader? Why was he unsuccess- 
ful? What was the result of his attempt to capture Richmond? 
7. What success did Lee have in 1S62? What defeat? 
S. Why did Lincoln declare the slaves in the Confederate States free? 
What was the effect of his declaration? What change was taking place with 
regard to slavery in the border states? What plan did Lincoln urge on Con- 
gress? 

9. How did the United States and the Confederate States obtain money 
with which to carry on the war? 

10. Why was the victory of Lee at Chancellorsville said to be costly for the 
Confederates? What was his plan after this victory? 

ii. Describe the battle of Gettysburg. Why was the result of such great 
importance for the United States? 

12. What success had Grant in the West? What was the result of his 
victory? 

EXERCISES 

1. Find on the map, page 412, or locate on an outline map on the board, 
the chief points in the Confederate line of defense at the beginning of 1862, 
again after the fall of Fort Donelson, and finally after the fall of Vicksburg 
in 1863. 

2. What resemblance is there between the Monitor and a modern Super- 
Dreadnought? 

% Important Dates: 

January 1, 1863. Lincoln declares the slaves in the Confederate States, 

except the parts held by the United States army, to be free. 
July 3, 1863. The battle of Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

CONQUERING A PEACE 

Another Gate to the Cotton States. — In the fall of 1863 
the scene of war was shifted to eastern Tennessee. The 
prize of victory was Chattanooga and the passes south of it 
through the Appalachians into northern Georgia. After 
gaining possession of the city, the Union army was defeated 
at Chickamauga Creek, a few miles southward. Only the 
courage and skill of General George H. Thomas, a Virginian, 
who commanded the left of the Union line, saved the army 
from ruin. The rest of the army was retreating in disorder, 
and his troops were hemmed in on three sides, but he could 
not be driven from his position. On that day he won the 
name of the "Rock of Chickamauga." 

Soon after the battle of Chickamauga, General Grant took 
command. Supported by Sherman, Thomas, and Hooker, 1 
he attacked the Confederates on Missionary Ridge and 
Lookout Mountain. Again General Thomas's men covered 
themselves with glory. Without waiting for orders, they 
attacked the crest of the ridge immediately in front of them, 
clambering over rocks and tree trunks in the face of a wither- 
ing fire. The story of their successful charge deserves a 
place beside that of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. 

The victories around Chattanooga were as important as 
the capture of Vicksburg. The gateway into the older cotton 

1 Hooker's army of 23,000 was sent from Virginia, on the railroads, by way 
of Louisville and Nashville, a distance of 1192 miles, in seven days. Long- 
street's army had been sent by rail to reinforce the Confederates before Chick- 
amauga. Its route was also roundabout, through the Carolinas and Georgia. 



426 



CONQUERING A PEACE 




states was open. Would a Northern army pass through into 
the very heart of the South? This question troubled the 
Confederate leaders at the beginning of 1864. 

Grant Commander-in-Chief. — Lincoln once said that it 
was a bad plan to change horses while crossing a stream, 

but several times he had been 
obliged to change commanders of 
the army. He was always on 
the lookout for a general whom 
he could fully trust. For two 
years he had been watching the 
straight-forward, modest, untir- 
ing soldier of Fort Donelson, 
^Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. In 
February, 1864, he made Grant 
Lieutenant-general and placed 
him in command of the whole 
Union army, in the East as well 
as the West. Sherman was given the immediate command 
of the western armies, while Meade still commanded the 
Army of the Potomac. Grant, assisted by Meade, undertook 
in May, 1864, an advance upon Richmond. On the same 
day Sherman began the invasion of Georgia. For the first 
time all the Union armies were to aid one another in carry- 
ing out a common plan. The Confederates could no longer 
shift troops by rail from Virginia to the Southwest or from 
the West to Virginia. 

The Armies in 1864. — The armies of both North and 
South had long been composed mainly of veteran soldiers. 
The losses had to be made up by new recruits, but these 
untried men learned quickly by the experience and example of 
the older soldiers. The Northern army was gaining steadily 
in numbers, while the Southern army was decreasing, because 
the North had a far greater population upon winch to draw. 



Ulysses S. Grant 



GRANT'S ADVANCE 



427 



In 1864 the Union armies contained more than twice as 
many soldiers as the Confederate armies. 

Grant's Advance. — In the campaign of 1864 Grant was 
true to his reputation as a fighter. His plan was to march 
overland upon Richmond. He outnumbered Lee two to one, 
but much of the time Lee had the advantage of fighting 
behind earthworks which defended every approach to the 
Confederate capital. The first struggle took place in the Wil- 
derness, not far from the battle-field of Chancellorsville. It 
was not a defeat for Grant, but neither was it a victory. 



g£ghl|jtj ^fcS^^rf^^^to^^J^-f^K 




Field-works for Defense 
The kind used iu the Civil War 

Other commanders might have withdrawn in order to make 
a new start, but Grant ordered his army to move around the 
Confederate right. He resolved to hammer constantly at 
the obstacle and wear out his antagonist. Lee's losses were 
more costly than Grant's, because the gaps in his ranks could 
no longer be filled. Grant lost in the summer campaign as 
many men as Lee had in his whole army, filling their places 
with recruits. Before summer was over he had laid siege to 
Richmond, though he had not succeeded in breaking through 
Lee's lines of defense. 

Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. — As at the time of 
McClellan's advance in 1862, a Confederate army under 
General Early was sent down the Shenandoah Valley to throw 



428 CONQUERING A PEACE 

Washington into a panic and prevent reinforcements being 
sent to Grant. Grant sent General Sheridan, who became 
famous as a cavalry commander, to drive Early off. Sheri- 
dan had twice the force of Early, and before the harvest 
season was over had cleared the Valley of Confederates. He 
also laid waste the Valley. Barns, mills, and many houses 
were burned. The horses, mules, and cattle were driven 
away. Grant and Sheridan meant that the farmers of the 
Shenandoah should never again furnish Lee with provisions. 
It was said that a crow flying over the country would have 
to carry his provisions with him. 

The Taking of Atlanta. — While Grant hammered away at 
Lee's lines around Richmond, and Sheridan laid the beautiful 
Shenandoah Valley in blackened ruins, Sherman carried out 
his part of the plan. His army advanced from Chattanooga 
into Georgia. The Confederates destroyed the railroad as 
they retreated, and Sherman rebuilt it. Upon that railroad 
he depended for food and military supplies, sent from Louis- 
ville through Nashville and Chattanooga. As Sherman had 
100,000 men and 35,000 horses, he calculated that to deliver 
food and forage regularly would have required 36,800 wagons, 
each drawn by six mules. The telegraph also followed his 
advance, so that almost every day he was able to send word 
to General Grant of his progress. On September 2 he suc- 
ceeded in capturing Atlanta, which, although it was not a 
large city, was the chief manufacturing town for military sup- 
plies in the Confederacy. 

Farragut at Mobile. — While Sherman was still fighting 
about Atlanta, Farragut, with a strong fleet, attacked the 
defenses of Mobile, Alabama, one of the few Southern ports 
which still remained open. His ships had to fight not only 
the Confederate forts, but also an iron-clad ram, the Tennes- 
see, almost as powerful as the Merrimac. After a severe 
struggle the Tennessee was taken and the forts surrendered. 



RE-ELECTION OF LINCOLN 429 

From Atlanta to the Sea. — After remaining in Atlanta 
several weeks, Sherman obtained Grant's consent to a bold 
plan of marching across Georgia to the sea. General Thomas, 
with a part of the army, returned to Chattanooga to defend 
Tennessee, for a Confederate army had started northward, 
hoping to draw Sherman after it. That army Thomas de- 
stroyed near Nashville in December. 

Before Sherman left Atlanta, storehouses, mills, machine 
shops — everything which contributed supplies to the Confed- 
erate armies — were destroyed. As his army swept across 
Georgia it left a track of desolation nearly 60 miles wide. 
The Georgia farmers had been raising corn instead of cotton, 
and they furnished a large part of the food for Lee's army at 
Richmond. Sherman, like Sheridan in the Shenandoah, left 
nothing that could be of any use to an army. Bridges. were 
burned, railroads were torn up, and the rails were heated and 
twisted. 

Sherman's army marched twelve or fifteen miles a day. 
There was no army to oppose, and Sherman captured Sa- 
vannah in time to offer it to Lincoln as a Christmas gift. 

Reelection of Lincoln. — Before the campaigns of 1864 
were over a new election had taken place. Many Republican 
politicians, unmindful of the great work that Lincoln had 
done, planned to set him aside and put forward some one else 
as the candidate of the Republican party. When the conven- 
tion met they discovered that the people believed in Lincoln. 
The opposition dwindled into nothing, and he was trium- 
phantly nominated. The Democrats nominated General 
McClellan, declared the war a failure, and urged the sum- 
moning of delegates from all the states to a convention which 
should restore peace. The news of the capture of Atlanta, 
of Farragut's capture of Mobile, and of Sheridan's victory 
over Early in the Shenandoah put new life into Lincoln's 
cause and he was reelected. 



430 CONQUERING A PEACE 

Drawing the Net on Lee. — Sherman's march from Atlanta 
to the sea destroyed Lee's last important source of supplies. 
The end of the war was near. In January, 1865, Sherman's 
army continued its journey. This time it marched northward 
across South Carolina and North Carolina. Sherman was 
slowly drawing the net closer upon Lee. 

Surrender of Lee, April 9, 1865. — Grant had not ceased his 
attacks on Lee during the winter. Food and ammunition 
were slowly giving out in Richmond. Lee's army was finally 
reduced to parched corn for food. On April 2 Lee abandoned 
Richmond. He could hold it against Grant no longer. One 
week later the two met at Appomattox Court House, and 
arranged terms of surrender. Lee's army had melted away. 
Only a few more than 25,000 of his once magnificent force 
remained to lay down arms on April 9. Grant's terms were 
generous, as Lincoln wanted them to be. The Confederate 
soldiers were to retire quietly and peaceably to their homes. 
The men should take their horses, because, said Grant, "They 
will need them for the spring plowing and farm work." 
General Lee in a simple and manly manner bade his men 
farewell. "Men," he said, "we have fought through the war 
together. I have done my best for you. My heart is too 
full to say more." 

Assassination of Lincoln, April 14, 1865. — Friday, April 
14, was a day of happiness in the North and of mourning in 
the South. The day was the fourth anniversary of the fall 
of Fort Sumter. The war was over. The South had failed 
to establish a separate republic. The United States was re- 
united in name, at least, if not yet in heart. The President 
and Mrs. Lincoln went to the theater with a small party of 
friends. During the play, a half-crazed actor, Booth by name, 
shot the President. In the morning Lincoln died. The coun- 
try's rejoicing was turned to the deepest mourning. The 
death of the generous leader, in whose heart was no bitterness 



THE COST OF THE CIVIL WAR 



43* 



against the South, was the greatest disaster of the Civil War. 
The divided nation needed his services to guide it through the 
problems of reconstruction. Once, to those who were plan- 
ning revenge and persecution, 
Lincoln had gently said, "Judge 
not that ye be not judged." 

The Cost of the Civil War. 
— No one knows what the 
Civil War cost the American 
people. Nearly a million of 
the strongest men in the 
North and South lost their 
lives. Hundreds of thousands 
of men labored for four years, 
not to produce things which 
the world needed, but to 
kill or capture one another. 
Much of the wealth which the 
Southern people had accumu- 
lated was swept away, and 
they and their children were 
obliged to start anew as they 
had in colonial days. The 
American people are still paying debts which the war caused. 
Billions of dollars have already been spent. It would have 
been far cheaper to have paid the owners of the slaves the 
whole value of their laborers, twice over. 

After all, it was not a matter of money. The Southerners 
believed that it was a struggle for existence, for rights inher- 
ited from their fathers, especially for the right to govern them- 
selves. The people of the North felt that saving the Union 
was still more important. They came to look upon slavery 
as the great stumbling-block to a better national life. There 
seemed to be no court of final appeal except war. 




Abraham Lincoln 
After the statue by St. Gaudens 



CONQUERING A PEACE 



QUESTIONS 

"^at victories did the 7 ™n around Chattanooga ? Why 

-.:-. : .<: _i .-;•..-:_--. ..; :"-r :_: :_re ::' '. ". . - ■.«: 
.. Whom did Lincoln pot in command of the Union am; 

r ±: zz~- : --_r: r : _r :':: :; _ : "' ; : _ i J:_z: _f.:; :. :u 

when he lost more men in battle than Lee ? 

zj did Sheridan devastate the Shenandor- is Sher- 

man's part in the campaign of 1864? Of what advantage was the railroad and 
-.z i~-] : :: S :~ _- - 

oat important port did Farragnt capture ? Wl s loss a great 

_-_i; ; : :: ::.: r _:!-. : 

zjsX was the object of Sherman's march from Atlanta to the Sea? How 
did he then proceed to draw the net upon L- iid Lee finally give 

■ 

6. How was the rejoicing of the North at the end of the war turned into 

_ . ; - .. . 

7. What did the Civil War cost the cour_ 



in- :i5is 

1. Find on a map of Fastem Tennessee the places mentioned in the para- 

rate the railroad over which Sherman obtained his supplies in the 

:e South defeated in its attempt to form a repubEc? 

." ■; » ; - D: -::: 

The surrender of Lee. 
Apr The assassination of Tjnfoln. 



CHAPTER XXXYm 



PEACE AXD ITS PROBLEMS 



Return of the Soldiers. — The soldi n and 

Confederate in is rapid! 

Over a million men in : : - - 
camps, marches, an 3 gan I Eazms : 

- or offices 7 
soldier made his way home, commonly on foot. He found 
m grown op to weeds, 1 wagons f 

■ 
in rams. : s was 

.ring. 
The return :: the Xrtherr. szhiier 1 3 altogel 

7 • - - - ssral Bis states : 

nothing of hosti) nnies. Fsrms had been 

thoosands - 

I 
Growth of the North. — Durh: 

:p for the loss rf the S ithero m dee! - hling 
in I in Euro] Hh un ant : 
corn export; d was doubled 

187c whik I The : 

- I 
By 1865 250,000 iea] rs wea - ol 

which could cut nearly an acre an hour. The am 
done is also lined by the - : immi- 

grants [he popul;. 

uppr: Btfississ - - ge in 1870 as in if 

in spite of the sses 



434 



PEACE AND ITS PROBLEMS 



The increase in Northern manufactures during this period 
was equally rapid. Their value grew three times as fast as 
from 1850 to i860. New mills were needed to make guns, 
cannon, armor, and other military supplies. Great quan- 
tities of iron ore were brought from Lake Superior to Chicago, 
Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh. Other kinds of manu- 
facturing flourished. One who watched the busy life of a 
Northern city would scarcely have imagined that a terrible 
war was raging three or four hundred miles to the south. 




MMMMMMMMp 

Scene in the Oil District of Pennsylvania in 1S68 



New industries were also begun. A little while before the 
war petroleum was found in several regions by drilling deep 
wells. In 1862, 3,000,000 barrels of petroleum were taken 
from wells, chiefly in northwestern Pennsylvania. The 
crude oil was sent to Cleveland, Erie, Pittsburgh, and other 
cities and refined, making kerosene, gasoline, naphtha, and 
other useful products. 

Soon after the war Congress carried out the promise made 
by the Republican party to give every man a free homestead 
of 160 acres if he would settle upon it. The government offi- 
cials saw that the pioneer who cleared the land for crops 
was doing a work no less important than that of those who 



CONDITION OF THE SOUTH 



435 



built railroads. Land had been given for railroads; after 1862 
it was given freely for farms. By 1880, 65,000,000 acres 
had been used for this purpose. 

The discovery of gold in Nevada started a rush of settlers 
to that region like that to California in 1849. Nevada grew 
so rapidly that Congress admitted it into the Union in 1864. 
Settlements were also begun in the region since included in 
Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and Arizona. 1 




The Ruins of Charleston 

Condition of the South. — In the South, on the other hand, 
the people felt all the hardships of war. Cotton, the princi- 
pal crop, could not be sold. The bales were used for breast- 
works or lay exposed to the weather. If Union armies 
passed where cotton was stored, they seized it. Many of the 

1 Shortly before the opening of the Civil War a line of overland coaches 
began carrying the mail and passengers regularly from the Missouri River 
to New Mexico, California, and Oregon, following the trails of the prairie 
schooners. Short lines were started to the chief mining camps of Nevada, 
Idaho, Montana, and Colorado. It required 22 or 23 days and nights of con- 
tinuous traveling to reach California. The heavy four-mule stage-coaches were 
dragged at a galloping pace over desert and mountain roads. It was anything 
but a comfortable journey, sleeping in the seats, halting ten minutes for meals, 
and watching at all times for attacks from hostile Indians. The "Pony Ex- 
press," a line of fleet horsemen, carried the more important mail over the same 
route in about eight days. In 1861 a telegraph line joined the East and 
the West in easy communication, and soon displaced the "Pony Express." 



4j;o PEACE AND ITS PROBLEMS 

farmers gave up raising cotton and raised corn to feed the 
Confederate armies. They were paid in Confederate paper 
money, which sank lower and lower in value. Mrs. Davis 
kept a diary in Richmond, and in 1S04 she wrote that a turkey 
cost her Soo. a pair of shoes $150. and a barrel of flour S300. 
In 1S05 tn i 5 money was worthless paper. 

During the war most of the able-bodied men were in the 
army. At least a third of them were killed or crippled. In 
their absence the work was done by the old men. women, 
children, and slaves. They also had to learn to make articles 
which they could no longer obtain by trade with the North or 
with England. 

Feople who lived in the South at that time tell how they 
parched rye and dried blackberry leaves to take the place of 
coffee and tea. The women drew out the spinning wheels 
and hand-looms and made clothing. They found herbs 
and roots to furnish dye stuffs. The old men and the more 
skilful slaves learned to make shoes and ordinary tools. In 
ways of living they went back to the old colonial times. 

The South's Hardest Question. — When peace came the 
Southerners were obliged to rebuild what had been torn down 
or burned during the war. But this was not their greatest 
difficulty. They had to find laborers. The negroes were still 
among them, but no longer as slaves. The rich planter who 
once owned a thousand slaves could not order the negroes 
to work for him any more than could his neighbor who had 
never owned one. 

Another difficulty nearly as great was. How should the states 
which had declared their independence, or. in other words, 
had seceded, be treated after the Confederate armies had 
surrendered? Both matters should have been settled by 
the wisest men of Xorth and South, men like Lincoln, with 
malice toward none. He, better than other Northern leaders. 
understood the South and the problem of peace. He was 



THE FREEDMEN 



437 



ready to answer all questions in the spirit of fairness and 
charity. 

A New Leader. — The death of President Lincoln raised 
the Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, to the Presidency at 
one of the most difficult times in the history of the United 
States. Johnson had been a poor boy. He had scarcely 
any education, but he had 
energy and ability, and soon 
became a leader in Tennessee. 
The politicians chose him as 
Vice-President in 1864, because 
he could win a few Southern 
votes for the party. Xone of 
them expected that he would 
become President. He was 
rugged, narrow-minded, and 
quarrelsome. 

The leaders of the Union 
party in Congress were little, 
if any, better fitted than 
Johnson for the new tasks. Thaddeus Stevens in the 
House and Charles Sumner in the Senate believed that 
the Southern people intended to rebel again or restore 
slavery. 

The Freedmen. — The negroes had not learned the mean- 
ing of freedom, when it was suddenly given to them. The 
story is told that William Lloyd Garrison visited a camp of 
freedmen near Charleston. "Well, my friends," he said, 
"you are free at last; let us give three cheers for freedom!" 
When he tried to lead the cheering the negroes stood in 
dead silence. To some freedom meant the right to be idle the 
rest of their lives. A great many thought that it meant a 
division of the old plantations among them. They frequently 
asked, "When is the land to be divided?" They heard 




Andi 






458 PEACE AND ITS PROBLEMS 

rumors that the government would soon give each one forty 
acres of land and a mule. 

Those who crowded to the towns and camps that were 
established by the army, or who roved about the country, 
suffered terribly from poverty and disease. The consequence 
was that as many negroes died within two years after their 
emancipation as there were Northern soldiers who lost their 
lives in the whole Civil War. 

Frederick Douglas, one of their own race who had escaped 
from slavery and educated himself, said of the freedman in 
1865, "He was free from the old plantation, but he had 
nothing but the dusty road under his feet. He was free from 
the old quarter that once gave him shelter, but a slave to the 
rains of summer and to the frosts of winter. He . . . was 
turned loose, naked, hungry, and destitute to the open sky." 
There were 4,000,000 of these people in 1865, more than 
whites and blacks together in the entire nation in 1783. 

In his Emancipation Proclamation President Lincoln had 
freed only the slaves living in the states under the control of 
the Confederacy. Maryland and Missouri voluntarily freed 
their slaves in 1864 and 1865. By the end of 1865 slavery 
remained lawful only in Kentucky and Delaware, and even 
here it had nearly disappeared. Finally, in December, 1865, 
an amendment was added to the national Constitution for- 
ever forbidding slavery anywhere in the United States. 1 

The Freedmen's Bureau. — The leaders in Congress did not 
believe. that the Southerners would treat their former slaves 
fairly, and established the Freedmen's Bureau to watch over 
the negroes, distribute relief, and establish schools. The 
purpose of the Bureau was excellent, but many of its agents 
taught the negroes that the Southerners meant to oppress 
them. The result was that the two races, which needed to 

1 Three years later the Fourteenth Amendment gave the freedmen all rights 
of citizenship except that of voting. 



THE PLANTATION SYSTEM ENDED 439 

be friendly, were driven farther apart. Besides, the fact that 
the government distributed supplies convinced the freedmen 
that they were not obliged to work, and led multitudes to 
leave the plantations in the midst of the summer of 1865, 
making the situation worse. 

The Plantation System breaks down. — The planters, 
without either slaves or free laborers on whom to depend, 
and without money to hire them, were "land-poor" after the 
Civil War. Some sold the plantations for what they could 
get, a fourth or a tenth of the former value, and made a 
living in some other manner. Whether the planters sold 
the plantations or not, the land was divided into small 
farms, and rented on shares to white tenants or negroes. 

The poorer farmers had a better chance to make a living 
after the plantations were broken up. They did not suffer 
from competition with planters owning vast amounts of rich 
land and controlling large gangs of slaves. Better methods of 
cultivation were introduced, so that by 1870 they were raising 
50 pounds more of cotton on an acre than the planters had 
raised under slavery. The building of new railroads helped 
them to market their crops, as the railroads had helped the 
small farmers in the Northwest. 

Reorganizing the Southern State Governments. — As the 
Civil War drew to a close, President Lincoln prepared to make 
the way easy for the reorganization of the seceded states and 
for their re-admission to the Union. "Forgive and forget" 
was his rule in such matters. President Johnson adopted 
Lincoln's plan and took steps in the summer of 1865 to reor- 
ganize the governments of the Southern states and to hold 
elections for Congress almost as if there had been no war. 

Johnson blundered in dealing with Congress and in trying 
to induce it to carry out his plan. Men like Stevens and 
Sumner distrusted the leaders in the Confederacy and wished 
to keep them from gaining control of their governments. On 



440 PEACE AND ITS PROBLEMS 

the other hand, the Southern people made some mistakes. 
The leaders were defiant toward the North. They advocated 
harsh and unfair laws in order to make the negroes work. 
Their mistakes and the blunders of Johnson combined to drive 
the moderate men in Congress over to the side of Stevens 
and Sumner. Congress, instead of following Lincoln's plan 
of generosity and charity toward the Confederate States, 
adopted Stevens's plan in which vengeance and distrust were 
the main motives. 

Stevens's Vengeance and Sumner's Ideal. — In 1867 ten 
Southern states were divided into five military districts. 
Tennessee escaped, because it had already made terms with 
Congress and had been re-admitted into the Union. Army 
officers ruled the districts as though the war was still going 
on. Many of the Southern leaders were deprived of their 
right to vote in the elections, while their former slaves were 
given the privilege. Finally, when the states had forbidden 
slavery, had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and had 
adopted negro suffrage, they were allowed to reenter the 
Union. From 1867 to 1870 the states fulfilled the hard con- 
ditions. This satisfied Thaddeus Stevens, who detested the 
Southern whites, and Charles Sumner, who wished to give the 
negroes the privilege of voting. 

Congress and the President. — President Johnson opposed 
the Congressional treatment of the South. He vetoed every 
important measure which Congress passed, and denounced 
its leaders in words more vigorous than polite. Congress 
then passed each measure over his veto. Feeling became so 
bitter that Congress turned from its work of keeping the 
South dependent upon the North to make sure that the 
President was dependent on Congress. In 1868 some of his 
more violent enemies accused him before the Senate of "high 
crimes and misdemeanors." Had he been convicted, he would 
have been removed from the Presidency. It was fortunately 



RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH 441 

impossible to obtain the necessary two-thirds vote for con- 
viction. Before Johnson's term expired, in 1869, Congress 
proposed the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 
adopted a year later, giving the negroes the same privileges 
in voting which the white people had. Up to that time only 
six Northern states had allowed the negroes to vote. 

Slaves become Rulers. — In South Carolina, Florida, 
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the new voters out- 
numbered the white voters. In Georgia the two were about 
equal. For several years the cotton states were ruled by the 
former slaves. 

" Carpet-Baggers." — Many Northern men were attracted 
to the South after the Civil War by the cheapness of the land 
or by the chance of being chosen to office by the votes of the 
freedmen. The Southern people called them " carpet-baggers " 
because they arrived with little more than a carpet-bag or 
satchel, in which their belongings were packed. They were 
men of all kinds, some honest, others dishonest, some noble- 
minded, others rascals. The carpet-baggers and the negroes 
held the offices and governed the states as completely as if 
the former rulers of the South had vanished. 1 

Carpet-Bag Government. — The new rulers knew almost 
nothing about governing a country, and least of all one in the 
ruined condition of the South after the war. The members 
of the legislatures voted themselves large salaries. They 
ordered at public expense fine clothes, laces, perfumes, expen- 
sive wines and cigars, jewelry and furniture, horses and car- 
riages. As one said, they believed that the state should take 
care of its statesmen. There were even worse things than 
extravagance and misuse of state money. Men bought 
justice and favors like merchandise. The debts of the 

1 A few Southern white men joined with the negroes and carpet-baggers. 
Such were held in great contempt by their white neighbors, and were called 
" scalawags." 



44- 



PEACE AXD ITS PROBLEMS 



states were increased four, five, six. or seven-fold, under such 
ignorant and corrupt rulers. 

Ku Klux Klan. — As the United States troops kept the 
Southern people from openly resisting their " carpet-bag " 
government, the Southern people formed secret societies, 
named the Ku Klux Klan. Pale Faces. White Brotherhood, 
and the like. Whatever the name, the objects were the 
same : to keep lawless negroes from stealing and other crimes. 

to frighten them from voting 
and holding offices, and to 
drive carpet-baggers out of the 
country. Some of the disguises 
which the members of these 
societies wore were terrifying. 
Their faces were masked, and 
they were shrouded in white. 
Even their horses were covered 
with long white gowns. The 
members rode around the negro 
cabins in the dead of night. 
Lawless men frequently made 
use of the same disguise to commit robbery and murder. 
In the North it was generally believed that all these secret 
societies of the South were organized to terrify, rob. and 
murder the negroes. 

Southerners again rule the South. — The rule of the 
carpet-baggers lasted in some parts of the South until 1877. 
As long as Federal soldiers were kept in the Southern states 
the carpet-baggers r emained in control. They had persuaded 
the freedmen that the Republican party had freed them. 
and that the Democratic party wished to place them back in 
slavery. Most of the negroes, therefore, voted the Republican 
ticket. General Grant, who was President from 1869 to 1S77. 
thought that the soldiers should not be withdrawn. But 




Rutherford B. Hayes 



THE END OF AN ERA 



443 



Rutherford B. Hayes, who was chosen President in the 
election of 1876 withdrew the army as soon as he was in- 
augurated. 1 The Southern people quickly drove the remaining 
carpet-baggers from power and took complete control them- 
selves. From that time the votes of the freedmen, if they 
took the trouble to vote, have had little influence upon the 
government of the Southern states. 

The End of an Era. — By 1876 the work of restoring the 
Southern states to their full rights in the Union was almost 

j 




^J^ISBIHTiS"!! 











Main Building at Philadelphia Exposition, 1876 



completed. It was also just a hundred years since the Dec- 
laration of Independence. The year was therefore chosen 
as a good time to review what the country had learned how 
to do. A great fair, called the Centennial Exposition, was 
held in Philadelphia. Nearly every state took some part 
in it. The South showed the progress that it was making 
with free labor. The farms, mining towns, and ranches of the 
West displayed their work. Manufacturers vied with one 
another in showing their wares and explaining the methods 

1 The results of the election were very close. In three Southern states 
both parties claimed the victory. As the election turned on these contested 
votes, Congress referred the matter to a commission of 15, which gave the 
votes of these states to Hayes. The Democratic candidate was Samuel J. 
Tilden of New York. 



444 PEACE AND ITS PROBLEMS 

of making them. New inventions were exhibited, such as 
the airbrake, the typewriter, and the telephone. 

Foreign nations also took part in the Exposition. The 
products of the skilled workers of almost all countries were 
placed beside the wares of American workmen. They in- 
cluded woolens, china, steel from England and Germany, laces 
and silks from France, rugs and tapestries from Turkey and 
Persia, carvings in wood and ivory from India, China, and 
Japan. The art exhibits of Europe aroused new interest in 
art among Americans. The school methods of the old world, 
especially the work in the kindergarten and in manual train- 
ing, taught American schoolmen to improve their own system 
of education. 

All the displays of the Exposition were housed in great 
buildings constructed for them. Millions of people, many of 
whom had never traveled, visited the Exposition and saw 
the work of the whole world spread out before them. They 
gained a better idea not only of what had been accomplished, 
but also of the improvements still to be made. So the 
Centennial Exposition marked the end of one era and the 
beginning of another. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What conditions did the Southern soldiers find on returning home? 
The Northern soldiers? In what ways had the North grown during the Civil 
War? What markets had the Northern farmers found to take the place of the 
Southern markets? What new industry sprang up in the North during the 
war? 

2. What new method of using public lands did Congress adopt in 1862? 
What besides free lands induced men to go West during the Civil War? 

3. Describe the conditions at the South during the war. In what ways 
did the South go backward? 

4. What hard questions did the country have to meet at the close of the 
war? Why was Lincoln's death a great misfortune to the South? 

5. Were the freedmen prepared to use their freedom wisely? How 
did they come to suffer greatly? What was the object of the Freedmen's 
Bureau? What was the result? 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 445 

6. What became of the plantation system? Who profited most from the 
change? 

7. What influenced Sumner and Stevens in reorganizing the Southern 
states after the Civil War? What did the states do which aroused the 
Northern leaders? 

8. What terms of admission into the Union did Congress require of the 
former Confederate states? Why did President Johnson and Congress 
quarrel? What did the House of Representatives try to do with him? 

9. What privilege did the Fifteenth Amendment give the negroes? Who 
were the carpet-baggers? How did the new rulers of the South manage the 
government of the states? 

10. What was the Ku Klux Klan? How long did the rule of the carpet- 
baggers and freedmen last? What effect had President Hayes's removal of 
the army? 

EXERCISES 

1. Wherever possible, learn from a soldier of the Civil War what changes 
he found on returning home after the war. 

2. In what ways did the Centennial Exposition benefit the United States? 

Important Dates: 

1862. Congress begins the policy of giving free homesteads to pioneers in 

the West. 
1867. Congress fixes the terms of re-admission of Southern states into 

the Union. 
1876. The Centennial Exposition is held in Philadelphia. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 



NEIGHBORS AND RIVALS 



"Alabama" Claims. — The war had left other unsettled 
questions. The most important grew out of the fact that the 
British government had permitted ships to be built in British 
shipyards and sold to the Confederates. The damage done 
by these ships, especially by the Alabama, amounted to 
millions of dollars. The dispute might easily have led to war, 
because there were many Englishmen who wished to fight 
rather than acknowledge that they were wrong. There were 
Americans, too, like Charles Sumner, possessed by the wild 
idea that England might be compelled to pay $200,000,000 
and give up Canada, on the ground that her sympathy for 
the South had prolonged the war and had caused the United 
States great loss and suffering. Fortunately, both countries 
had statesmen with common sense and common honesty. 
The English Prime Minister, William E. Gladstone, and the 
American Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, agreed to leave 
the settlement of the dispute to five arbitrators. England 
and the United States each chose one, and Brazil, Italy, 
and Switzerland also chose one each. In 1872 they decided 
that England had injured the United States to the amount 
of $15,500,000 through the destruction of ships. The deci- 
sion was unpopular in England, but the English government 
paid the money promptly. The way in which the dispute 
was ended set a noble example to the world of a method 
better than war for settling such questions. 

Question of Mexico. — The United States had a question 
to settle with France, the ruler of which was Napoleon III, 



THE PURCHASE OF ALASKA 447 

a nephew of the great Napoleon. Europeans had many 
claims against the Mexican government, some of them like 
those which Americans had had before their war with Mexico. 
England and Spain decided in 1861 to join France in forcing 
the Mexicans to pay. Soon, however, England and Spain 
discovered that the Emperor Napoleon had other plans in 
mind and they refused to have anything further to do with the 
enterprise. The fact was that Napoleon meant to set up an 
empire in Mexico strong enough to check the spread of Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples in North America. He also thought 
that a canal should be dug through the Isthmus of Panama, 
making a waterway as important as the Bosphorus, which 
flows between Europe and Asia. 

Napoleon chose a time for carrying out his dreams when 
the United States was too busy with the Civil War to inter- 
fere. He sent thousands of soldiers to Mexico and spent mil- 
lions of money. In 1864 he set up Maximilian, brother of the 
Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, as Emperor of Mexico. 
The United States had protested against his conduct, but in 
vain. When the Civil War closed and the United States had 
several hundred thousand veteran soldiers under arms and 
ready for action, the Emperor Napoleon wisely listened to 
the protests and withdrew his troops, leaving the unfortunate 
Maximilian to his fate. Two years later Maximilian was 
captured by the Mexican republicans and shot, on the ground 
that he had ordered republican prisoners shot as rebels. The 
action of the United States showed that the Monroe Doc- 
trine had not been forgotten. 

Purchase of Alaska. — In 1862, the year President Lincoln 
planned to emancipate the slaves, Alexander II, Czar of Russia, 
proclaimed that the Russian peasants should be freed. They 
were not slaves like the southern negroes, but their labor 
was owned by the nobles who possessed the lands on 
which they lived. They were serfs, like the English and 



448 NEIGHBORS AND RIVALS 

French peasants in the Middle Ages. By this act of 1862 
Alexander also won the name of "Emancipator." It was 
natural that he should sympathize with the United States 
during the Civil War. The North felt grateful for this Rus- 
sian sympathy, especially as there was danger of war with 
England and France. 

After the Civil War was over the Russian government 
unexpectedly offered to sell Alaska. Secretary Seward, a 
member of Lincoln's cabinet who had been retained by Presi- 
dent Johnson, received the proposal and arranged a treaty 
of purchase. Americans at that time supposed that Alaska 
was a frozen region, its inhabitants Esquimaux, and "its 
chief products polar bears and glaciers." Congress was in 
the midst of its quarrel with Johnson and unwilling to 
carry out any plan proposed by his administration. Sumner 
believed that Seward's bargain was a good one and his influ- 
ence in the Senate was strong. Besides, many Congressmen 
remembered Russia's friendship and wished to show proper 
appreciation. The treaty was therefore accepted in April, 
1867. The new territory was twice as large as Texas, and 
as large as the original thirteen states together. The cost 
was $7,200,000, which the natural wealth of Alaska, un- 
known at that time, has many times repaid, though its 
resources in gold, coal, fish, and agricultural products have 
barely been touched. 

A United Canada. — The talk about the seizure or conquest 
of Canada, which was common in the United States after 
the Civil War, alarmed the Canadians and they resolved to 
strengthen themselves by union. In 1867 there were six Brit- 
ish colonies in North America: Canada, divided into two 
provinces, — Quebec and Ontario, — Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
wick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and, far away 
on the Pacific Coast, British Columbia. Between the East 
and the West were three great natural basins, the Hudson 



UNITED CANADA 



449 




The United States, Canada, and Mexico 
Alaska and its islands, if laid down on the United States, would touch the Alantic 
Ocean on the southeast, Canada on the north, and the Pacific Ocean on the west 

Bay country, the Winnipeg region, and the Mackenzie River 
Valley, all unsettled. A great convention of delegates met 
in Quebec and drew up a plan of union. The meeting re- 
calls to mind the Federal Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. 
In 1867 the new union was put into effect under the name, 
Dominion of Canada. This was like the English system of 



450 NEIGHBORS AND RIVALS 

government, although in some ways it resembled that of the 
United States. The Dominion had a parliament instead of a 
congress, and instead of a president a prime minister who 
must be satisfactory to the majority in parliament. 

Only four of the provinces united in 1867. Four years 
later British Columbia, and shortly afterward Prince Edward 
Island, were admitted, much as the United States permits 
new states to enter the Union. Newfoundland, alone of the 
old colonies, remained outside of Canada. The government 
of Canada had a vast western territory out of which to make 
other states in later years. The growth of the Canadian North- 
west is a part of the westward movement in American history. 

A Greater Britain. — The constitution which the Cana- 
dians drew up was agreed to by the British parliament. A 
governor-general was sent to represent Great Britain in Can- 
ada, but he was not to interfere with the right of the Cana- 
dians to govern themselves. They paid no taxes to the mother 
country and even charged import duties upon British products 
brought into the Dominion. All this was very different from 
the bitter dispute a century before between the British parlia- 
ment and the colonies on the Atlantic shore. A new idea 
had taken possession of the leaders of Great Britain. They 
now thought that the Englishman who chose to live beyond 
the seas in Canada, South Africa, Australia, or any other 
country, should enjoy the same rights he would have at 
home. The expenses of the Empire, which troubled the 
men of 1765 so much, were paid from taxes collected in 
Great Britain, unless the colonies offered to bear a share. 

The change in views of the English leaders was mainly due 
to the adoption by parliament of new "reform " bills. These 
extended the reforms in government begun by the " Great 
Reform" bill of 1832, until almost every man in the land pos- 
sessed the right to vote. Representation in parliament was 
also more fairly distributed. The government remained a 




NOTE. 

The United States seized part of West Florida 

in 1810, and part in 1812. 



from 



B. D. Servosa, Eng'r,.N. Y. 



AFFAIRS IN EUROPE 451 

monarchy, that is, a king or queen reigned, but it really 
became a democracy or government by the people. The 
representatives of the people in parliament improved many 
of the old laws: protecting the workmen in the factories 
against accident, shortening the hours of labor, especially of 
women and children, and making it easier to purchase farms. 
In such ways the British government was becoming wiser 
and more just, while its empire was becoming greater in extent. 

Civil War in Germany. — While the United States was 
torn by a terrible struggle between the North and the South, 
a civil war of another kind raged in Germany. The states 
into which the Germans were grouped were almost as in- 
dependent as if they had been separate countries. The 
principal ones were Prussia, Bavaria, and Austria. Alto- 
gether there were 38 states, n of them large. Their union 
was called a confederation. Their wars with one another 
were caused by attempts of the two greatest states, Prussia 
and Austria, to strengthen the confederation and take the' 
lead in its affairs. One short war occurred in 1864 and another 
in 1866. Prussia seized the kingdom of Hanover, the duchies 
of Schleswig and Holstein, and several smaller states, adding 
these to her own territory. Austria was no longer allowed 
any part in the affairs of Germany. All the northern states 
were formed into a North German Confederation. Four 
years later, during a war with France, the South German 
states entered the Confederation, which now became the 
German Empire with the King of Prussia as Emperor. 

In 1848 the revolutionists had dreamed of an empire which 
would rest upon the free consent of all the German peoples. 
This new Empire was far different — it was built on military 
force. Bismarck, the minister of the Prussian King, once 
said that " iron and blood," rather than fine speeches, were 
the surest means of getting what the Prussians wanted. The 
first act of the new Empire was to tear from France, which 



452 NEIGHBORS AND RIVALS 

had been badly defeated in the war, two border lands, Alsace 
and a part of Lorraine. 

France a Republic. — The Emperor Napoleon III had been 
partly responsible for the war with Germany. He was taken 
prisoner at Sedan in September, 1870. As soon as the news 
reached Paris a republic was proclaimed. One of the first 
tasks of the new government, when the war was ended, was 
to raise the money with which to pay the indemnity of one 
billion dollars demanded by the Germans. The next duty 
was to agree upon a constitution, for many Frenchmen wished 
to recall to the throne a descendant of their ancient kings. 
The majority of the people were, however, in favor of ruling 
themselves with a president as their chief magistrate. The 
constitution they adopted was more nearly like that of 
England than that of the United States, for they have a 
prime minister, whose power is greater than that of the presi- 
dent. 

United Italy. — The same years saw a union of all the 
Italian states under Victor Emmanuel as king. Until 1S59 
Italy, like Germany, had been divided into several kingdoms 
or principalities. The northeastern part of the country, 
including the beautiful city of Venice, was ruled by the 
Emperor of Austria. For more than half a century the 
Italians had been dreaming of an Italy which should be 
united and should manage its own affairs. The dream, 
like so many others, could be realized only after many battles, 
but 187 1, which saw a united German Empire, also saw a 
united Kingdom of Italy. 

Austria-Hungary. — Austria, which was driven out of Italy 
and Germany, learned lessons from defeat and, prepared to 
live on better terms with Hungary, united with it under the 
rule of Francis Joseph. For many years the Empire of Aus- 
tria had tried to manage the Kingdom of Hungary. Now the 
leaders of both nations made an ingenious arrangement by 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 453 

which they might be united toward all the world but inde- 
pendent toward each other. 

But there were other peoples within Austria Hungary 
whose rights were forgotten. These were the Czechs in Bo- 
hemia, the Slovaks in northern Hungary, and the Jugo-Slavs 
who lived in the southern lands of the Dual Monarchy. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What were the Alabama Claims? How were they settled? 

2. What excuse had France for sending an army into Mexico? What 
plan had the Emperor of France formed? How was the question settled? 

3. How did Alexander II of Russia obtain the name of Emancipator? 
How did the United States come to possess Alaska? 

4. Why did the Canadian provinces form the Union or Dominion of Can- 
ada? Describe the government of Canada. What provinces formed the 
Union? Which one has never joined the Union? 

5. What is England's new way of treating her colonies? Does she require 
them to pay taxes? What changes have been made in the British government? 

6. What caused the Civil War in Germany? What was the result? 

7. What change in government took place in France? In what way is 
the government of France more like that of England than that of the United 
States? 

8. What did the Italians do about the same time? What arrangement 
did Austria and Hungary make? 

9. Which were the great united nations in 1876? 

10. What effect had the victory of the United States on its relations with 
European countries? 

EXERCISES 

1. Prepare a list of great questions which the United States and Great 
Britain have peaceably settled. Tell how each was settled. 

2. Compare England's treatment of the thirteen American colonies in 1765- 
1775 with that of the Canadian provinces in 1867. 

3. Prepare a list of small countries of Europe whose people were not free. 

4. Review the change in government in England in 1832. See page 329. 

Important Dale: 

KS72. England and the United States settle the dispute over the Ala- 
bama Claims by arbitration. 



CHAPTER XL 
THE PRAIRIE STATES 

The Pacific Railroads. — During the Civil War, when Con- 
gress was anxious to keep the Pacific coast loyal to the United 
States, it voted to aid several companies in the construction 
of railroads from the Mississippi Valley to the coast. Two 
companies began building, the Central Pacific from Sacra- 
mento eastward, and the Union Pacific from Omaha west- 
ward. The government gave these roads twenty sections of 
land, or 12,800 acres, for every mile of road, and besides lent 
them money. A race was started to see which could build 
the most before they met. 1 

The Union Pacific had the advantage at first. Its line west 
of Omaha followed the Oregon Trail through a country so 
flat that little grading was necessary. More than half of 
the workmen were veterans of the Civil War. The Central 
Pacific advanced more slowly across the Sierra Nevada range, 
but it made up in speed when it reached the great desert 
basin. Thousands of Chinese laborers were brought into the 
United States for this work. The two lines met in 1869 on 
the shores of Salt Lake near Ogden. 

The Pacific railroad was a great undertaking. The iron 
for the western part had to be carried by steamboats from 
the East around Cape Horn or by way of Panama. For the 

1 The United States gave the railroad companies that built the first railroad 
system connecting the Missouri River with the Pacific coast 33,000,000 acres 
of land, an area much larger than the state of Pennsylvania. It gave to the 
companies which built the western railroads enough land to make five states like 
Pennsylvania, or a country larger than France or Germany. 



THE PACIFIC RAILROADS 



455 



eastern part wood and iron and other materials were taken 
up the Missouri River in steamboats or across western Iowa 
to Omaha by "prairie schooners." The eastern railroads 
had not yet reached Omaha. The great works of the past, 
like the National Road, the Erie Canal, and the Pennsyl- 
vania Portage Railway, seemed small beside this road. Ex- 
cept for the small Mormon town of Ogden, no settlements 







The Principal Railroads West of the Mississippi in 1884 

had been made between Omaha and Sacramento, nearly 
1800 miles. The little settlements at Denver, Salt Lake, and 
Carson were off the route chosen. 

The earlier railroads had commonly been built to carry 
goods to the pioneers or to carry their products to the markets. 
The new roads crossed regions as yet uninhabited. Like the 
rivers of the Atlantic coast or of the Mississippi Valley they 
guided the work of settlement. The immigrants scattered 
on either side, adding village to village until the slender band 
reached across the continent. In this way the Pacific coast 
and the Mississippi Valley were bound together as never 
before. 



456 



THE TRAIRIE STATES 



Panic of 1873. — Other railroads were begun while the 
work on the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific was being 
completed. Indeed, as many miles of road were built in 
the four years ending in 187 1 as existed in the whole country 
shortly before the Civil War. Men, in imagination, saw towns 
springing up everywhere. They borrowed recklessly to pay 
for rails, engines, and cars, or to buy town sites and lay 
them out. The consequence was a panic as bad as the panic 
of 1837. The country was only beginning to recover from it 

when the Centennial Exposi- 
tion was held. For some 
time railroad building almost 
stopped. During these years 
the settlement of the West 
went on more slowly. 

The Indian Question. — The 
Indians watched the advance 
of the settlers with angry feel- 
ings. Many of them remem- 
bered that ever since white 
men had landed on the Atlan- 
tic coast the Indian had been 
forced to give up one hunting 
ground after another. As in the colonial days, the settlers on 
the frontier were often attacked. The government sent sol- 
diers to punish the hostile tribes, especially the Sioux and 
the Apaches. Several little wars took place. In a campaign 
against the Sioux in Montana, led by their chief, Sitting Bull, 
General George Custer, a young cavalry officer who had dis- 
tinguished himself in the Civil War, and 264 of his troopers 
were suddenly surrounded and all of them killed. Only 
Custer's horse, Comanche, and a half-breed scout escaped. 
This was the last important Indian War. By 1877 most of 
the Indians were placed on reservations, either in the neigh- 




Sitting Bull 



THE RANCHES 457 

borhood of their old hunting grounds or in the great Indian 
Territory south of Kansas. 

New Settlements. — With the building of railroads a con- 
stantly increasing stream of settlers poured into the states 
and territories beyond the Mississippi. Part of them were 
from older states and part from Europe. In the year 1883 
alone, more than 750,000 immigrants entered the United 
States, chiefly from Great Britain and Germany. There 
also came thousands of Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes. 
Many of these immigrants settled in Minnesota, Iowa, Ne- 
braska, and the Dakotas. Unlike the settlers farther east, 
those who chose lands on the prairies found no forests to 
supply them with building material, and were obliged for a 
time to live in sod-houses or dug-outs. Corn or grass was 
often their only fuel. 

The Ranches. — The earliest settlers on the plains de- 
pended chiefly on their herds of cattle. The frontiersman in 
America, whether on the eastern slopes of the first colonial 
mountain barrier or in the Mississippi Valley, raised many 
cattle. The vacant lands in the neighborhood gave him free 
pasture for his herds. This was especially true on the great 
plains. Nature had made it a nation's pasture land. 

Many eastern men established vast ranches on the plains 
west of the farming settlements. These were mostly on the 
borderland, where the prairie ends and the mountains begin, 
a region too dry for ordinary farming. Cowboys in strange 
western dress, many of them Mexicans, tended great herds 
ol long-horned cattle. Cowboys and steers took the place 
of the roving Indians and the wild buffaloes. The immense 
herds of buffaloes disappeared, slaughtered by wasteful, 
pleasure-seeking hunters. No fences were needed on the 
ranches. The cowboys lived with the herds, riding fleet 
bronchos and sleeping in the open air, much as did the Arabs 
of old. 



458 THE PRAIRIE STATES 

It was a common thing for one ranch to possess five, ten, 
or twenty thousand head of cattle, which fed over a region 
equal to a half dozen western counties. A few cowboys 
were able to take entire care of them. Branding the calves 
with the mark of the ranch, so that they would be known, 
fighting cattle thieves, and driving the fattened stock to the 
distant railroads once a year, formed the chief occupations 
of the ranchmen. Grass, browned and cured on the ground, 
was the winter's food for the cattle. A deep valley, where 
little snow fell, formed the only shelter. 

The cattle raised on the ranches at slight cost were carried 
or driven to Omaha and Kansas City. At first they were 
forwarded to St. Louis or Chicago. By 1862 Chicago had 
become the center of the meat packing business, as Cincin- 
nati had been in the preceding period. Chicago has always 
kept the lead in the business, although Omaha and Kansas 
City have gradually gained a large share in it. From i860 to 
1880 the value of the business increased from $30,000,000 to 
$300,000,000. Meat was sent all over the country in refrig- 
erator cars. After 1876 great quantities were prepared for 
sale in Europe. The refrigerator cars took the meat to an 
eastern port, where it was packed in refrigerating rooms on 
steamships. 

From 1870 to 1890 farmers gradually took up the open 
lands. Within ten or twenty years the free prairies for graz- 
ing disappeared and the great ranches were crowded out. 
Many small herds of better breeds of short-horned cattle 
replaced the large herds. Farmers, rather than cowboys, 
kept them on the grazing grounds and guarded them. Great 
barns were built to shelter them in winter, and stores of 
fodder were prepared for the winter's food. 

By 1890 the free fertile lands of the West were nearly all 
occupied. No longer could men leave shops or eastern farms 
when wages were low and take up free farms. The irnrni- 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 



459 



grant from Europe had little chance to become a landowner 
at almost no expense, as he had been doing since the founding 
of Jamestown. 

The colonists had taken one hundred and fifty years to 
occupy the lands from the Atlantic Ocean to the first moun- 
tain barrier, a region about two hundred miles wide. But 
the later pioneers swept over the West, which was more than 
five times as wide, in twenty years. The difference was due 




A Cattle Ranch in 1880 



in part to the railroads which helped the modern pioneers 
to reach the western lands and to create cities almost over 
night. It seemed as though the West possessed Aladdin's 
magic lamp. 

For a while the new towns and country districts were almost 
without government. Ruffians took refuge in the frontier 
towns, and in the ranches and the mining camps in the moun- 
tain districts farther west. They made a "Wild West" of 
the region. Showmen now like to travel over the country 
exhibiting the ways of such rough western towns. These 
days of lawlessness and danger, which have always been a 



460 THE PRAIRIE STATES 

characteristic of the American frontier, lasted only a short 
time. Neat frame houses took the place of the sod-houses 
and the dug-outs, and thrifty stores came in where gambling- 
dens had thriven. Orderly town, county, and state govern- 
ments were modelled after those in the older states of the 
Mississippi Valley. Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado had 
by entering the Union extended the states to the Rocky 
Mountains. California and Oregon had long stood as 
sentinels of the Union in the West. In 1889 and 1890 the 
frontier governments of North and South Dakota, of 
Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington became of age 
and took their place beside their sister states. They com- 
pleted a solid double tier of states across the northern part 
of the United States. In 1896 Utah, first settled by the 
Mormons, became a state, and so filled in the space between 
Colorado and Nevada. 

What the Pioneers did. — The earliest settlers on the 
prairie farms escaped some of the hardships of the other 
frontiersmen. They did not have the drudgery of felling 
huge forests or digging drains in swamps. They never suffered 
from malaria and ague as the pioneers did elsewhere. But 
they had other troubles instead. Some years the green crops 
dried up in the fields before harvest time for the want of 
enough rain. Many men gave up the hard struggle and 
returned to the eastern states. Those who stayed finally 
learned to plant crops that needed less rain and to cultivate 
the land in such a way as to make the best use of all the water 
in the soil. As they grew more skilful in dry farming they 
pushed to the very edge of the desert-like plains lying near 
the Rocky Mountains. Such pioneers taught others, and now 
failure occurs no oftener there than in other parts of the 
United States. The conquerors of America are the sturdy 
pioneers who have stayed on the frontiers until nature yielded 
to their will. 



WHEAT FOR THE WORLD 461 

Wheat for the World. — Farming large tracts of land was 
easier on the plains than elsewhere. The prairies were level, 
unbroken, and extensive. Railroads were at hand to carry 
large crops to the cities, where the increasing population 
needed more food. For such reasons some men have estab- 
lished mammoth farms, especially wheat fields. Often these 
cover 10,000 or 20,000 acres. On them, powerful traction 
engines or an army of teams draw great machines — combined 
plows, seed-drills, 

reapers and thresh- l^S^l 

ers for harvesting. ^ivliK(@ ikfefll 

Great farms of " ; '"' ' ;|( fe: ^^p^^Jj j 

this kind are the y ^ : ^^M^0s^^§6£:^'> i 

exception. Moder- .,X|||^ ' 

ate sized farms of w * ^ 

r The New Way of Mowing Grass 

160 or ^20 acres are 

With gasoline motor 

the rule. Every- 
where the farmers use the newer farm machinery. They 
prepare the soil by riding plows and cultivators, put in 
the seed by the use of planters and drills, and harvest 
with self-binders. Steam threshing machines complete the 
work. 

Mills and Elevators. — The other work of the middle and 
farther West is done on an equally large scale. Monster 
grain elevators were built at railroad centers or lake ports 
like Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chicago, 
and Buffalo. In Minneapolis, especially, great flour mills 
began to grind thousands of barrels of flour a day. The small 
mills, driven by water power, which formerly dotted wheat 
growing regions, gradually fell into ruins. The sale of wheat 
to Europeans increased rapidly. It was ten times as great 
in 1880 as in i860. 



462 THE PRAIRIE STATES 

QUESTIONS 

1. In what ways did the United States help to build tlie first Pacific rail- 
roads? Why was building the Pacific railroads a difficult undertaking? What 
effect had the western railroads on settlement? 

2. What caused the panic of 1873? What effect had the panic on the settle- 
ment of the West? 

3. What attitude did the Indians lake toward the settlement of the prairies? 
How did the United Slates treat the Indians? 

4. Who settled the states west of the Mississippi? How did the pioneers on 
the prairies live? 

5. Describe the cattle ranches of the frontier. Where were the cattle mar- 
keted? What change finally took place in the cattle country? 

6. Why was the prairie region more rapidly settled than the Atlantic coast? 

7. What new states were formed in the West? 

8. What did the western farmers produce? How did the farmers do their 
work? What industry grew up in the wheat-growing region? 

EXERCISES 

1. Name and locate the chief Pacific railroads. 

2. Compare the methods of farming in colonial days with those in the western 
states to-day. See pages 123-124. 

3. How did the settlers reach the frontier in colonial days? How in the 
days of the settlement of the western prairies? 

Important Dates : 

1869. Completion of the first Pacific railroad. 

1890. By this date the free lands useful for farming, without irrigation, 

are mostly gone, thus ending the era of colonization within the 

United States. 



CHAPTER XLI 



NEW METHODS OF WORKING 

The New Factory System. — The early factories took from 
the household and the small shop such industries as spinning, 
weaving, and forging. As the use of machinery increased and 
new inventions were made, other household industries — the 
making of butter and cheese, the preserving or canning of 
fruits and vegetables, the curing, and even the cooking of 
meats — were moved, at least in part, to the factory. 




Scene in a Knitting Mill 

Factories also increased in size, as water power was used 
less and steam more. Many factories originally located near 
swift-running streams were abandoned. If the water power 
was abundant, they were enlarged, but steam was often used 
as well as water power. 

The towns of New England, New York, New Jersey, and 
Pennsylvania, which first began weaving silk, cotton, and 



464 i'HE NEW METHODS OF WORKING 

woolen goods, or tanning leather, and making these products 
into clothing, shoes, and gloves, still continue in the same 
industries. Their factories are commonly run by steam or 
electricity. They must often send a distance for fuel as well 
as for materials like cotton, wool, and hides. In spite of 
these disadvantages they are able to continue in the same 
business because they have made a reputation for good work- 
manship and have a body of trained men and women in their 
factories. 

Since the Civil War, factories have slowly migrated wherever 
fuel, materials, and skilled workers are found near together. 
For this reason cotton mills are rising in the South, woolen 
mills and shoe factories in the middle West. It is still true 
that the western people raise most of the food and produce 
most of the materials used in manufacturing, while the eastern 
people make most of the finished articles. 

The Uses made of Electricity. — Marvelous things have 
been accomplished in the same period in the use of electricity. 
In 1866, after many efforts, a telegraph cable was laid through 
the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Several years later an in- 
ventor improved Morse's telegraph so that two messages 
could be sent in opposite directions over the same wire at one 
time. Soon four messages could be sent at once. 

Alexander Graham Bell, a teacher of the deaf, while study- 
ing the human ear, thought of a plan of "talking by tele- 
graph." In 1876, after years of work, he exhibited a 
successful instrument at the Centennial in Philadelphia. 
This was the telephone. Men called him "a crank who 
says he can talk through a wire," but his invention was 
quickly adopted in America and Europe. By 1890 it was in 
common use. 

The Dynamo. — Inventors in England and other European 
countries, and also in the United States, working at the same 
time, found out how to make electricity on a large scale anH 



THE USE OF ELECTRICITY 465 

cheaply. The machine invented for this purpose was called a 
dynamo. Though first made about 1866, it did not come into 
ordinary use in the United States until after 1880. The 
dynamo is commonly driven by a steam or gasoline engine 
or by a water wheel. The electricity which it makes can be 
carried a long distance by means of wires. Other inventors 
discovered many uses for the electricity which the dynamo 
produces. Some learned how to use the current to run 
machinery. This is done by means of a motor. 

In 1878 Charles F. Brush invented the arc light for streets 
and parks, while Thomas A. Edison, in the following year, 
made an electric light for houses. In the meantime, a Ger- 
man in Berlin, Dr. Siemens, had constructed a street railway 
car run by an electric motor. All these inventions worked 
great changes in the cities. Street cars, which had at first 
been drawn by horses, were soon moved by electricity. A 
line in Baltimore and another in Richmond in 1885 were the 
first in the United States to make the change. By 1895 few 
horse cars were left in the United States. This change within 
the cities from 1885 to 1895 was followed by the building of 
electric railways from town to town. Such lines, bringing 
the town and country within easy reach of each other, made 
country life pleasanter and helped the towns and cities to 
obtain food from the neighboring farms and to carry on trade 
with one another. Several of the older railroads have begun 
to use electric instead of steam locomotives. 

The most wonderful use for electricity was yet to come. 
Scientific men had long known that electricity travels through 
space without the necessity of following a wire, like waves 
on the surface of the water. In 1896 Marconi, an Italian 
electrician, invented an instrument for telegraphing through 
space without wires. The method was rapidly improved 
until messages could be sent across the Atlantic Ocean and 
from ship to ship in mid-ocean. The wireless telegraph, 



4 66 



THE NEW METHODS OF WORKING 



invented in Europe, was almost immediately adopted in the 
United States. 

Within a few years after the invention of the dynamo, the 
motor, and the electric light, many private companies went 

into the business of making 
electric current and selling it 
for lighting and for running 
machinery. Some electric 
plants use coal for fuel, but 
others depend on water 
power. In 1902 great ma- 
chines were built to use a 
part of the water of Niagara 
River above the Falls. The 
electric current is carried on 
wires to Buffalo, 22 miles 
away, and even to cities 
much farther off. In these 
it is used to light streets and 
buildings, run factories, and 
move street cars. Rivers are 
made to do work which would 
require thousands of horses. 
The nineteenth century was 
the age of steam, but the 
twentieth century is becoming the age of electricity. 

Steel. — The need of a material stronger and more durable 
than iron led to the invention of steel. In 1856 Henry 
Bessemer, an Englishman, discovered a cheap method — since 
called the Bessemer method — of converting ordinary iron 
into steel. Bessemer's method, as well as other new methods, 
was introduced into the United States. By 1890 the Ameri- 
cans equaled, if they did not surpass, other nations in making 
iron and steel. Steel was soon used for finer grades of tools 




: Sky -Scraper" 

Woolworth Building, New York; the tall- 
est building in the world. This has a 
steel frame 



A Modern 



IRON AND STEEL 



467 



and delicate surgical instruments. Steamships were built of 
it, and were made larger as the builders learned to use the 
new materials. The modern steamship, framed with steel 
beams and covered with sheets of steel, is capable of carrying 
two or three thousand passengers and many car-loads of 
freight across the Atlantic in five or six days. The huge 
buildings called ' sky-scrapers" are steel-framed. The parts 
of such structures are made in a mill, ready to be put to- 
gether. Since the introduction of steel the railroads have 




Loading Iron Ore on a Boat on Lake Superior 



been entirely rebuilt at great cost. The rails of the track, 
many of the bridges, even many of the cars, are made of 
steel. 

How Iron is obtained. — Great improvements have also 
taken place in mining ore, in carrying it to the mills, and in 
manufacturing iron. Formerly most of the iron ore came 
from Pennsylvania, but now three-fourths come from the 
mountain ranges about Lake Superior. Much is also mined 
in Alabama. In Michigan and Minnesota powerful steam 
shovels load the soft iron ore upon railway cars. Railroads 
take it to lake ports and dump it into great bins, high above 
the water-level. Chutes lead the ore into the holds of steel 
steamboats five or six hundred feet long, and capable of car- 
rying five or six thousand tons at once. These great carriers 



468 



THE NEW METHODS OF WORKING 



take the ore to ports chiefly on the south shore of lakes Erie 
and Michigan, near where it is wanted. Huge unloading 
machines operated by steam or electricity lift the ore from 
the boats to railroad cars in which it goes to the iron mills. 
At every step it is handled by machinery, and the human 
hand need not touch it or do more than direct the machines 
which perform the work. 

In order to separate the iron in the ore from other mate- 
rials, iron ore, coke, and limestone are poured by iron buckets 

into a blast fur- 
nace, and a running 
stream of liquid 
iron comes out and 
is cast into what 
is called pig iron. 
The pig iron is 
then made into 
cast iron, wrought 
iron, or into some 
kind of steel. Ma- 
chines pull the 
steel into rods and 
wire, or roll it into bars and sheets. These in turn are made 
into tools, machinery, and building material. 

In 1876 iron was chiefly manufactured in the neighborhood 
of Pittsburgh. After the ore was obtained principally from 
the Northwest, other cities became rivals of Pittsburgh. 
Steel mills must be located where they can bring their coal 
and iron ore together cheaply and at places from which the 
finished articles can be forwarded to the best markets. For 
this reason many steel mills have been built along the south 
shore of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, with Cleveland and 
( 'hicago as the centers. 

New Uses for Iron and Steel. — Inventions have never 




Unloading Iron Ore 



NEW USES OF IRON AND STEEL 



469 



been made so fast as since the Civil War. Man has seemed 
determined to find machines for all his work. Some were 
borrowed from Europeans, others were invented by Ameri- 
cans, some are merely improvements of older inventions, 
others introduce entirely new methods of work. Many old 
tools like the blacksmith's hammer and the wood-worker's 
chisel and the laborer's shovel were enlarged and driven by 




A Bessemer Converter of Iron into Steel 



steam or electricity. These great hammers, lathes, and 
steam shovels are able to do the work of scores of men 
working in the old manner. Saws and planes and chisels 
which cut stone and iron as easily as wood have come into 
use. Machines have been built for cutting coal in mines, 
digging ditches, and laying railroad tracks. 

Other machines make wire, tacks, bolts, screws, nails, and 
pins. One of them takes thin wire, cuts it into short lengths, 
puts a head on the pieces, sharpens these at the other end, and 
sticks them into papers — a paper of pins ready for the market. 



470 THE NEW METHODS OF WORKING 

The machinery for making paper and for printing news- 
papers and books is still more remarkable. Paper was 
formerly made entirely from cotton and linen rags. The 
demand for a cheaper paper led to the discovery of a new 
method of manufacturing it. Soft poplar, pine, or spruce 
logs are ground into a pulp, dried, and rolled into sheets. 
The modern printing-press prints, folds, and even counts the 
finished newspapers at the rate of 20,000 an hour. With 
another ingenious machine, called the linotype, or "line-o'- 
type," a printer can set a line of type almost as easily as 
one can write the words with a typewriter. 

A list of the new machines would be very long. None 
are more remarkable than the cash registers and calculating 
machines which add, subtract, multiply, and divide, or the 
phonographs, stereopticons, and moving-picture machines. 

Gas and Petroleum. — Gas made from coal had long been 
used in American towns for lighting houses and streets. 
Natural gas obtained, like petroleum, from deep wells came 
into common use about 1872. Pipe lines were built, through 
which the gas could be carried to the large cities, sometimes 
150 or 200 miles away. Gas from Pennsylvania, West Vir- 
ginia, Ohio, and Indiana helped the cities to build up manu- 
factures, for it was a cheap fuel. The more recent discovery 
of natural gas in southeastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma 
has started a new manufacturing center. 

The uses of petroleum have been multiplied. Raw petro- 
leum is used for fuel in many steamships, and also in loco- 
motives, especially in California. The kerosene lamp was 
invented during the Civil War, and the gasoline stove soon 
afterwards. The principal use of gasoline is in a new form 
of engine. About the time of the Philadelphia Centennial the 
first successful gas-engine was constructed in Europe. The 
explosion of a mixture of gas and air drove a piston which in 
turn moved the wheels. Scores of inventors had been work- 




NEW INVENTIONS 471 

ing on the idea for more than a century. The new engine 
proved popular. It had several advantages over the steam- 
engine; it was, first of all, simpler to run and lighter in 
weight. The gas could be made from alcohol as well as 
gasoline. 

The Automobile, 1886. — About ten years after the in- 
vention of the gas-engine and while engine-builders were 
perfecting it, other inventors found new uses for the machine. 
The gas-engine was used to run carriages and wagons first in 
Europe, thus producing the automobile. The manufacturers of 
every country quickly adopted this 
ingenious idea, and improved upon 
the original cars. Workmen and 
inventors of every country rivaled 
one another in efforts to produce 
the best. The gas-engine is also .—. 

rapidly being used to drive farm IP' 

machinery. Goods which men once '-^^ *^Msifil^ 
carried to market on their backs, ^lllgf 5 ^^^ ' 
and which later oxen or horses j"^= — 

hauled, steam, gas, or electric cars ^^^^5^^s^£Ji 
now take more swiftly and more ."" ^^^""^^^^'X^'^ 
cheaply. '■J ^ " '^^P 

The Aeroplane. — For centuries 

. An Aeroplane 

scientists dreamed of an invention 

by which man could travel through the air like a bird in 
flight. Balloons were made in the eighteenth century, 
but they, like the sailing vessel, were at the mercy of every 
wind. European inventors were quick to apply the light 
gas-engine to the balloon, changing its shape so that it would 
be more manageable. The lightness of the gas-engine made 
possible what seems the most marvelous invention of all. In 
1905 the Wright Brothers, after patient trials, made a suc- 
cessful aeroplane or flying-machine. 



472 



THE NEW METHODS OF WORKING 



Expositions. — Several times since the Centennial Expo- 
sition other expositions have been held, which gave the 
people opportunities to see what rapid progress was being 
made, not only by Americans but also by all nations. The 
World's Fair or Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 
was intended partly to celebrate the 400th anniversary of 
the discovery of America. Eleven years later an exposition 
at St. Louis commemorated the 100th anniversary of the pur- 
chase of Louisiana, and the following year one at Portland, 







Court of Honor, Columbian Exposition 

Oregon, commemorated the expedition of Lewis and Clark 
to the mouth of the Columbia River. 

"Big Business" or Trusts. — The methods of managing 
business and manufacturing have changed almost as much 
as the methods of work. The men engaged in the railroad 
business were the first to begin the change. It did not seem 
necessary that passengers or freight, going from New York to 
Boston, or from New York to Buffalo, or from Philadelphia 
to Chicago, should be carried over half a dozen short railroad 
lines, one ending where another began. Successful managers, 
like "Commodore" Vanderbilt, sought to unite the roads 
running in the same direction or through the same district. 
This had been begun before the Civil War, but it was pushed 
forward more rapidly afterward, until the railroads of the 



BUSINESS AND CITIES 473 

country were united into several enormous systems, which 
spread over the United States like huge nets. 

Other business men followed the example of the railroad 
managers. They reached out from the city where they 
worked and purchased similar factories in other cities. Often 
they did not buy these rival factories, but formed with their 
owners various kinds of agreements which have been com- 
monly called "trusts." The competition or rivalry of many 
men or groups of men trying to sell the same thing formerly 
kept prices down. When the great railroad systems con- 
trolled the freight business of a region, or when the 
"trusts" made all or nearly all of one kind of goods, they 
were free to fix prices as they pleased. The formers of the 
trusts claimed that their purpose was to introduce more 
economical methods of conducting business. They made 
such enormous fortunes, however, by the new method that 
the benefits seemed to the people to be all on the side of the 
railroads and trusts. The people differ greatly as to how the 
government should meet this new question. The formation 
of trusts has been especially successful in such trades as iron, 
steel, tobacco, petroleum, meat, sugar, cotton, and leather. 

Cities known for Special Things. — As a result of the 
growth of manufacturing, certain cities became noted for 
producing a particular article. For example, Troy, New 
York, became known for collars and cuffs; Baltimore for 
canning oysters; Gloverville, New York, for gloves; Phila- 
delphia for carpets; Bridgeport and Waterbury, Connecticut, 
for brassware. In some towns nearly all the workmen are 
engaged in a single occupation. In South Omaha they are 
occupied with meat packing; in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, 
with iron and steel; in East Liverpool, Ohio, with pottery; 
in Fall River, Massachusetts, with cotton goods; and in 
Brockton, Massachusetts, with boots and shoes. Some 
places profited more than others by the new methods of 



474 THE NEW METHODS OF WORKING 

manufacture. The South is being entirely changed through 

their introduction. 

QUESTIONS 

i. What household industries have recently been moved to the factory? 
What changes have occurred in the old factories? Why can an eastern factory 
located a long way from the materials which it needs remain prosperous? What 
changes in the location of factories are noticeable since the Civil War? 

2. What new use has been found for the telegraph? What improvement 
has been made in it? 

3. Who invented the telephone? What did people think of it at first? 

4. How is electricity now made? When did the dynamo come into use in 
the United States? What uses have recently been found for the electric current 
produced by the dynamo? What is the motor? When was the first electric 
railway system introduced into the United States? 

5. Who invented the wireless telegraph? 

6. Describe one new way of making steel. Mention new uses for steel. 

7. Describe the process of obtaining iron ore, shipping it, handling it, and 
making it into various kinds of iron. Where is the iron obtained? Where is 
it manufactured into iron, steel, tools, and machinery? 

8. What tools and machines have recently been invented? How is each 
used? How is cheaper paper now made? How is type now set? 

9. When did natural gas come into use? How did its discovery affect the 
work of the regions where it was found? 

10. What uses have been found for petroleum? What is the principal use 
for gasoline? Describe the gas-engine. Where is it employed? 

11. What change has taken place in the management of railroads and facto- 
ries? What is a "trust"? Name some of the more successful ones. 

12. What cities are famous for some special kind of manufacturing? 

EXERCISES 

1. Write a paper on the changes which have taken place in the work of the 
household. Seepages 125-129, 250-254, 299-300. 

2. Visit some local factory, telephone system, electric light or power plant, 
or street railway system, and write a paper about its history. 

3. Draw a map of the township showing the telephone lines, electric light 
and power lines, interurban car lines, and give the dates of construction of 
each. 

4. What changes have taken place in the method of heating American houses? 
See pages 122-123, 3^9' 

Important Date : 

Learn the date of the invention mentioned in this chapter which the ma- 
jority of the class believe to be the most important. 



CHAPTER XLII 



THE NEW SOUTH 




Harvesting Alfalfa est Virginia 



The Southern Farmer. — As the plantation system broke 
down, the planters generally moved into the cities. Some 
had the courage to start anew in another business. Their 
sons became the business men, the lawyers, and the physi- 
cians of the 
community. 
The planta- 
tions were 
divided into 
small farms, 
and either sold 
or rented to 
the freedmen 

or to farmers who before the war had been too poor to 
own slaves. These white men with small farms found cotton 
growing profitable for the first time. They were no longer 
obliged to compete with the owners of large plantations using 
gangs of slaves. As they prospered they rented or purchased 
more land. They also bought the newly invented machines, 
cotton-seed planters and stalk cutters. They now raise about 
half the cotton, the other half being raised by negroes. 
The southern cotton crop is three-fourths of all the cotton 
raised in the world. 

Renewing the Land. — For a long time the southern 
farmer had trouble with the soil. Much of the land was worn 



476 



THE NEW SOUTH 



out because crop after crop had been raised from it without 
any attempt to preserve its richness by the use of fertilizers. 
Fortunately, great beds of phosphate rocks were discovered in 
South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. These rocks were 
ground up and made into a valuable fertilizer, which was 
scattered over the fields. The farmers also learned how to 
rotate their crops, so that the soil was rapidly improved. 




The consequence has been that land once regarded as 
worthless has again come into use. Farmers who had gone 
to the West to obtain fresh land began to return to the old 
homesteads. The cotton growers were not the only ones 
who profited by the new way of enriching the soil. All kinds 
of farming were improved by it. Innumerable truck gardens 
and fruit farms were started. The Atlantic coast from Mary- 
land to Florida has almost no winter. Five or six crops of 
vegetables may be grown on the same soil during a single 
season. The South has, therefore, become the garden where 
the early fruits and vegetables of the whole country east of 
the Rocky Mountains are raised. 

Rice Farming in the Southwest. — Rice was formerly 
grown only on lowlands which were flooded by the overflow 
of the rivers at certain times in the year. Recently the 
farmers of the Southwest, in Louisiana and Texas, have 
learned to drain the lowlands, and then to irrigate the fields 



FARMS, MINES, AND MANUFACTURES 477 

by pumping water over them, in order to grow rice. By 
such means they have become independent of floods and 
do not fear droughts. They use drills and harvesters and 
steam threshers similar to those on the wheat farms of the 
Northwest. 

Utilizing the Treasures Underground. — In this period 
southerners learned that the oil, gas, coal, and iron fields of 
the Appalachian Mountains, first discovered in Pennsylvania 
and West Virginia, extended into the South as far as the 
mountains ran. A little later they found that the coal, oil, 
and gas fields of Missouri and Kansas also extended through 
Oklahoma into Texas. 

The people of northern Alabama had long known that there 
was plenty of red iron ore in the neighborhood. On the old 
plantations they had used it as a dye-stuff. " Dye-dirt " they 
called it. The Indians had used it before them. After the 
Civil War a geologist explored the region and reported that 
there was a mountain of this ore twenty-five miles long. A 
railroad was built to the place. In the same region a coal 
field larger in area than the entire state of Massachusetts was 
discovered. An abundance of limestone, used in making iron, 
was also found near by. Nature had thus marked northern 
Alabama as a center for iron manufacture. In 187 1 a town 
was founded in the heart of the new region and named Bir- 
mingham, after the great English manufacturing city. The 
Alabama village has now become a great city with all kinds 
of manufactures. Other cities like Chattanooga and Knox- 
ville, in eastern Tennessee, have also become iron manufac- 
turing centers. 

Cotton Mills. — Midway between the regions where cotton 
is grown and coal is mined, mills for the manufacture of 
cotton cloth have recently been built. It was cheaper to 
haul the coal down the mountains than to carry the cotton 
all the way to the coal. Therefore at such points as Char- 



478 



THE NEW SOUTH 




A Southern Cotton Mill 



lotte, Columbia, and Atlanta cotton mills have been built. In 
1876 the South manufactured scarcely any cotton goods, or 
anything else. Now it produces about one-half of the cotton 
manufactures of the United States. South Carolina, once 

a poor state, 
with no other 
wealth than its 
plantations or 
farms, now has 
not only bet- 
ter farms but 
ranks second 
among the 
states in the 
products of its 
cotton mills. 

Other Manufactures. — One thing led to another. Enter- 
prising men established mills to make oil and meal out of the 
seed of the cotton, which had formerly been wasted. The 
cultivation of peanuts and their preparation for the market 
has become an important industry in Virginia and North 
Carolina. Cotton-seed oil and peanut oil have many uses 
similar to the olive oil of Europe and California. It is one 
of the marvels of nature that the seed of the cotton shrub 
and of the peanut vine produce an oil like that of the fruit 
of the olive tree. 

The Appalachian Mountains are covered with valuable 
forests. Some of the largest logging camps and most modern 
saw-mills in the world have been recently established to make 
use of them. Factories for making furniture have also been 
built in the timber region. In 1892 High Point in North 
Carolina was a village unknown beyond the bounds of its own 
county. It is now, next to Grand Rapids in Michigan, the 
greatest center of furniture making in the United States; 



WATER POWER AND DRAINAGE 479 

and other southern cities are close to it. These factories, 
mills, and shops at the South are using the same machines 
that are used in the North. Great steam shovels scoop up 
the iron ore from the surface around Birmingham. Elec- 
tric and pneumatic machines cut the coal loose in the coal 
mines. 

Water Power. — The southern towns have begun to utilize 
water power to make electricity for lighting and for running 
machinery. No other part of the United States is better 
situated for such purposes. The swift-flowing rivers, falling 
from the mountains to the plains, to the east, the south, 
and the west of the Appalachian system, offer many sites 
suited to manufacturing. And the materials needed — lum- 
ber, iron, and cotton — are close by. There is enough water 
power within 60 miles of Charlotte, North Carolina, to do 
the work which would require the labor of millions of men 
working day and night. 

Some Great Works at the South. — The southern people 
have carried out some enterprises as great as any in modern 
times. Galveston was originally built on low ground and 
was often flooded by high water when storms raged on the 
Gulf of Mexico. In 1902 the city began a great sea-wall. 
It has not only finished this, but has raised the level of the 
entire city from eight to seventeen feet, putting an end to the 
danger from floods. New Orleans has drained and diked and 
filled in, until it, too, is safe. Sewerage and drainage have 
banished malaria, yellow fever, and cholera, which were the 
scourges of the old South. Florida, since 1906, has been 
draining the Everglades. When this work is finished an area 
three times as large as Connecticut will be opened to settle- 
ment for small fruit and truck farms. One writer has esti- 
mated that if the swamps along the Atlantic coast from New 
Jersey to Florida were drained, like similar lowlands in Hol- 
land, 10,000,000 people might find homes on them. It is in 



480 THE NEW SOUTH 

such places that the United States must find part of its future 
land for settlement. 

The Key West Railroad. — Since the Civil War the South 
has also been building many new railroads. The Florida 
East Coast railroad has recently finished a line from Miami 
to Key West. To do this, it was necessary to bridge the sea 
from islet to islet with great stone arches. The new railroad, 
155 miles long, carries trains to within 90 miles of Havana. 

How this Change affects the People. — The change in the 
work of the South since 1876 is much like that in the North 




The First Train over the Key West Railroad 

after the War of 181 2. The negroes and the poorer white 
farmers no longer make their sugar, candles, and soap, and 
spin and weave and dye their own clothing, as they often did 
for some years after the Civil War. The negroes are not now 
the skilled laborers — the carpenters, the masons, and the 
blacksmiths of the South, as in the days of the great slave 
plantations. The white men from the hill country of the 
Appalachians are taking oyer these trades. They are also 
going into the factories and shops. The old class of poor 
white people is fast disappearing. Varied work and freedom 
from competition with slaves have given them the opportunity 
they needed. Their little cabins are giving way to three-room 
or four-room houses. Their sons no longer move westward as 
they did in Lincoln's boyhood, but they find the "promised 



EDUCATION AND PROGRESS 481 

land" about them in the mines, the forest, the factories, and 
the new farms. "Captains of big mills" now take the place 
of the former slave-holders. 

Free Schools. — The New South has meant more than 
making better use of land, forests, mines, and water power. 
After the Civil War the southern people began earnestly to 
build up a free public school system. The states had few 
schools and those mostly private. The population of the 
South was scattered widely, which made the task of providing 
for education difficult. The southerners also wished to edu- 
cate white children and negro children in separate schools. 
The cost of the schools was, moreover, a heavy burden, be- 
cause the South was impoverished by the war. Northern 
men have helped with generous gifts of money. The southern 
states now pay more in taxes for schools in proportion to 
their wealth than the West, though not so much as the east- 
ern states. They have elementary and high schools, colleges, 
universities, agricultural and industrial schools. 

Special industrial schools are provided which train the 
negroes to be farmers, workmen, and the teachers of their 
own race. The most famous are at Hampton, Virginia, and 
Tuskegee, Alabama. Booker T. Washington, one of the 
leaders of the southern negroes, the head of Tuskegee Insti- 
tute, said that in 1865 barely three out of one hundred grown 
negroes could read and write, but that seventy can now do so. 

The New South. — The old southern cities have removed 
the scars of the great war. In 1865 Richmond had lost 
700 houses, but it rose rapidly from its ruins. In 1907 the 
South held a great fair on the shore of Hampton Roads, 
near Norfolk, to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary 
of the settlement at Jamestown. Every southern state had 
its own building. In the buildings devoted to industry and 
agriculture the exhibits showed the progress of the South 
since the fair at Philadelphia in 1876. 



482 THE NEW SOUTH 



QUESTIONS 

i. What became of the planter class? Who profited from the breaking 
down of the plantation system? 

2. How was much southern land brought back into cultivation? What 
changes have taken place in southern farming? 

3. What underground treasures have recently been found in the South? 
For what is Birmingham noted? 

4. Why were the cotton mills built at such places as Charlotte, Columbia, 
and Atlanta? What other manufactures have been established? 

5. Why is the South fortunately situated for manufactures? 

6. What great works have recently been completed? Are there still any 
opportunities for settlers at the South? 

7. Who are the skilled workers of the South? What changes in work are 
taking place? What is the South doing for the education of its workers? 



EXERCISES 

1. Those who live in the states where slavery and the plantation system 
existed before the Civil War should find stories to illustrate the changes which 
have taken place in the South. For example, the story of some old plantation 
or the history of some factory or mill. 

2. Those who live in the North, east of the Rocky Mountains, should find 
out which food products in the local market are grown in the South. Which 
of the manufactures are made in the South? 



CHAPTER XLIII 



THE LAST BARRIERS 

The Indians become Citizens. — Ever since Jamestown was 
founded the Indian had been crowded back from one hunting 
ground to another. His last hunting grounds were called 
"reservations," and for many years the government kept the 
white settlers out. Finally, the friends of the Indian con- 
cluded that it was better for him to give up his tribal customs, 







Waiting on the Frontier of Oklahoma 

receive his share of the tribal reservation, and become a citi- 
zen. After the last Indian wars were over, Congress passed 
a bill giving to each Indian family 160 acres, and permitting 
the sale of the remainder of the land of the reservations, on 
the understanding that the money should go to the Indians. 
The first great reservation to be broken up was Indian Terri- 
tory, a part of which was bought by the government and 
opened to ordinary settlers. 

Oklahoma. — The part of Indian Territory thrown open 
was called Oklahoma, or the "Beautiful Land." Thousands 
of persons were eager tc occupy the best sites for towns or 



484 THE LAST BARRIERS 

the best farming lands. The scene on the border, as the time 
approached when the territory should be declared open, was 
very different from what happened during the earlier settle- 
ment of the West. Troops were obliged to keep the land 
seekers back so that none should gain an unfair advantage. 
At a signal exactly at mid-day, the waiting crowd began a mad 
race for the best lands. On foot or on horseback or in wagons, 
old men and young men, and many women, rushed in to stake 
out homesteads or town lots. Guthrie was an open field at 







A Town in Oklahoma Two Days after Settlement Began 

noon time. At night 10,000 people were encamped there, and 
the inhabitants had already begun to form a town government. 
Wherever an Indian reservation was broken up, the same wild 
scramble for land occurred. Oklahoma grew with wonderful 
rapidity. In 1907 it was united with Indian Territory and 
admitted to the Union. Meanwhile the population, which in 
1889 was barely 200,000, mostly Indians, increased to more 
than one and a half million. Oklahoma is now larger in 
population than several of the original thirteen states. It 
is little more than twenty years old; they are nearly three 
hundred years old. Its white population has been drawn 
chiefly from its neighbors, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas. 

Arizona and New Mexico have grown more slowly. They 
became states in 191 2. They filled the last gap in a solid tier 
of states extending along the southern boundary from Texas 
to California. The union of thirteen states in 1 789 has become 
a union of forty-eight. 



ALASKA AND THE NORTHWEST 485 

The Call of the Canadian Northwest. — As the fertile lands 
of the West were filled, land seekers turned to the Canadian 
Northwest. Farmers and clerks and laborers moved to this, 
the newest frontier. Canada, like the United States, founded 
the new provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta 
on the great western prairies, and thus bridged over the gap 
between Ontario and British Columbia. In 1886 the Cana- 
dian Pacific Railroad was completed to the Pacific Ocean. 
Two other great railroad systems tapped various places in 
the Canadian West — the Canadian Northern and the Grand 
Trunk. The Canadians have recently taken a place beside 
the people of the United States in producing wheat, gold, and 
silver for other parts of the world. Immigrants from Eng- 
land, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, as well as from 
the United States, are rapidly making use of its vast prairies, 
forests, and mines. The climate no longer seems to check the 
tide of migration toward the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay. 

Alaska. — In 1896 gold was discovered 2000 miles up the 
Yukon River, near the Alaskan boundary. The greater dis- 
coveries were on the Canadian side, but discoveries at several 
places in Alaska caused a rush to the gold fields like that to 
California in 1849. I n a short time the population of Alaska 
was more than doubled. Within five years Americans took 
out of Alaska $132,500,000 in gold, nearly twenty times the 
original cost of the territory. Nor is gold the only thing of 
value there. It has been estimated that there are forests fit for 
marketing with an area larger than either the state of Maine 
or South Carolina; two or three hundred square miles of coal- 
beds, varying from two feet to twenty feet in thickness; farm 
and grazing lands equal in extent to the combined area of Illi- 
nois and Indiana. Even if much of the pioneer work within 
the United States proper is completed, there is still work for 
Americans in the great territory in the farthest Northwest. 

The people of the Pacific coast have long profited by the 



486 



THE LAST BARRIERS 



Alaskan trade. Cities like Tacoma and Seattle have grown 
rich and strong from it. Tacoma was a village of noo in 
1880, in 1910 it was a city of over 83,000. Seattle had 3500 
inhabitants in 1880 and 237,000 in 1910. 

Building the Nation on the Pacific Side. — In the days of 
the Spaniards cattle formed the chief wealth of California. 




Picking Oranges in California 

After the inhabitants recovered from the excitement over the 
discovery of gold in 1848, wheat took the place of cattle. 
Grass, gold, and grain were the chief means of gaining wealth 
in each of three periods. In 1876 California and Oregon were 
noted for their great fields of wheat. Farm machinery and the 
railroads made this possible. About 1885 a new industry was 
begun along the Pacific coast. California, Oregon, and Wash- 
ington became famous for their fruit farms, and today well- 
tilled orchards and vineyards cover the land. For a while wheat 
proved a more profitable crop than gold, but fruit is now more 
profitable than either. The Sacramento Valley in California 
and the "Spokane Prairie" region in Washington are still 
given chiefly to wheat growing. Here combined harvesters and 
threshers enter the fields of standing wheat and when they leave 



FRUIT RAISING AND MINING 487 

the grain is piled in sacks. In the Pacific Northwest — Oregon 
and Washington — a few great steam-driven saw-mills with 
improved machinery do the work that was formerly done by 
a multitude of small saw-mills built by the sides of streams. 
The Pacific states have other resources. Multitudes are drawn 
to them by the mild, sunny climate and beautiful scenery. 

The earliest settlers occupied lands on the coast, and in 
the adjacent valleys. The late comers settled farther east, 
and the frontier line moved steadily eastward toward the 
Cascade Mountains and the desert barriers. Some grazing 
land and irrigated patches exist along the eastern border of 
each of the Pacific states, but most of the region still in- 
cludes vast stretches of undeveloped land. 

Mining Camps in the West. — Long after the great dis- 
coveries of gold and silver in California, Colorado, and Nevada, 
these, as well as many other metals, were found elsewhere in 
the mountain region. Prospectors, pioneers with another 
name, searched everywhere for minerals. The settlement 
of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming began in the mining camps. 

Such camps were wretched villages — a general store, a 
saloon, and a row of rude one-story huts on a winding street 
in a mountain valley, usually remote from a railroad and 
the outside world. They were lonely and desolate when the 
gold seekers were away, but all excitement if they returned 
successful. It was a hard life and few men succeeded. Young 
men made up most of the inhabitants, and they usually left 
when the first wild gold-fever passed. The fortunate few 
remained to work in the mines. Some who went to mine 
stayed to trade and farm. Numberless mining camps became 
thriving villages and cities. Railroads were built to them. 
The printing-press, the church, the school, and the library 
came in time. Then real pioneers took the place of the rough, 
boisterous prospectors. 

Conquering the Last Barrier. — Great progress has been 



488 



THE LAST BARRIERS 




Arid Land before Irrigation 



made in overcoming another barrier to settlement in the 
mountain plateau of the West. Millions of acres of land in 
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and other states are 
fit only for grazing unless water is carried to them. In some 
places farmers dug artesian wells or tapped a mountain stream 
to obtain water for the fields. States also built canals to con- 
vey water. Such 
:: — -T ^l^^ rr ^- t ^^^^^^^^^^ work is called 

irrigation. The 
Mormons of 
Utah were the 
pioneers of the 
United States in 
turning a part 
of the water in 
the mountain 
streams toward 
the farm lands. 
Since 1902 the 
United States 
has been helping 
the mountain 
states. Great 
lakes have been 
made by dam- 
ming up rivers. Canals distribute the water thus stored when 
wanted in the valleys below. The money obtained for the pub- 
lic lands and the water privileges is again put into new irri- 
gation works. The land in small lots is almost given to the 
settler. The waller is sold to him at cost. Great reservoirs 
between the mountains are being rapidly formed. The dams 
are built as solid as the brick and stone work of the Romans. 
The mammoth Roosevelt dam, on Salt River in Arizona, 
supplies water for thousands of farms. Another on the Rio 




The Same Land after Irrigation 



IRRIGATION 



489 



Grande forms a lake forty miles long and from one to ten 
miles wide. New Mexico alone, which Coronado declared 
worthless, will soon have an area of irrigated lands equal 
to the entire states of Delaware and Rhode Island. 

An irrigated farm is different from others. The owner 
controls the 
supply of 
water and 
hastens or 
delays the 
planting or 
ripening of 
his crop at 
will. The 
soil is deep 
and rich. 
The endless 
sunshine and 
mild climate 
make every 

season a harvest season of some kind. The high dams supply 
water power, making electricity for the towns, the mines, and 
the farms. All the comforts of the city are found. Men are 
learning to accomplish the marvel of making the American 
deserts bring forth bountiful harvests. Writers of geography 
no longer write the words " the Great American Desert " across 
the far West. The government of the United States already 
looks forward to the time when 20,000,000 people will live 
on these farms created in the desert. 

To make sure of a plentiful supply of water it is necessary to 
care for the forests which clothe the slopes of the mountains. 
If they are cut down, the streams will be dry most of the 
year, while at other times they will rush down, swollen far 
beyond their banks, and sweep everything before them. For 




The Roosevelt Dam 



490 THE LAST BARRIERS 

this reason the national government began in 1891 to set 
apart millions of acres of public forest land, placing the trees 
under the care of foresters, men who have studied how to 
protect trees. The foresters also plant new trees where these 
are needed. 

QUESTIONS 

1. How had the United States dealt with the Indians in the past? What 
plan was finally adopted? What was done with the land composing the Indian 
reservations ? 

2. Why was Oklahoma settled so rapidly? Who formed the main body of 
settlers in Oklahoma? What two states were formed in 191 2? How many 
states now compose the Union? 

3. What progress did the westward movement in Canada make in this 
period? Who were the settlers? 

4. What valuable resources have been discovered in Alaska? What cities 
have profited from the Alaskan trade? 

5. What changes have taken place in California since the days of the Span- 
iards? What are the main occupations of the people on the Pacific coast? 

6. Who were the pioneers in the western mountains? Describe a mining 
camp. 

7. How is the last western barrier to settlement being overcome? Describe 
an irrigation system. 

8. What is the work of the national foresters? 



EXERCISES 

1. Compare the ideas of Alaska in 1867 with those held at the present day. 
See page 448. 

2. Review the Spanish settlement of California. See pages 226-227. 

3. Why was the settlement of the Pacific coast states really an eastward 
instead of a westward movement? 

4. What two barriers to settlement, finally removed, are discussed in this 
chapter? 

Important Date : 

1902. The United States begins building irrigation works in the Far West, 
and thus opens a new frontier to settlement. 



CHAPTER XLIV . 
LABORERS OF A GREAT NATION 

Growth of Cities. — The change in the methods of work 
has led, even more than before, during the last twenty or 
thirty years to the rapid growth of cities. The development 
of great railroad systems has had a similar effect. The cen- 
ters from which they branch out in many directions serve as 
markets from which products of all sorts are forwarded to the 
smaller towns and villages of whole regions. Some of the 
cities are also ports on lake or sea, from which goods are 
carried by steamship to other ports of the United States or 
to Europe, South America, Asia, or Africa. 

For many years after the Republic was founded, the great 
majority of the people lived in the country on farms. This 
is still true in the South and some parts of the West, but in 
the older states the majority now live in the cities. One- 
tenth of the entire population of the United States dwell in the 
cities of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Nearly one- 
fourth live in cities with a population of 100,000 or more. 

The Newest Immigrants. — Immigrants now usually settle 
in the cities, while formerly they settled on farm lands near 
the frontier. The great demand for laborers in the cities has 
attracted them. Indeed, the rapid growth of manufacturing 
in recent years would have been impossible without the help 
of newcomers from Europe. Many immigrants also go to 
the principal mining regions. 

The number of immigrants has increased very rapidly 
since the Civil War, but especially since 1880. It has been 



492 



LABORERS OF A GREAT NATION 



.._ 3? 




Village of the Region from which the Later 
Immigrants are Coming 



more than half a million a year, and some years more than a 
million. The total population in the United States in 1790 
was a little less than four million people. Now as many peo- 
ple enter the United States every four years. More come in a 

single year than 
came in the en- 
tire period from 
the founding of 
Jamestown t o 
the outbreak of 
the Revolution. 
Enough immi- 
grants arrived in 
1907 to people 
a state as large 
as Connecticut 
or Nebraska. 

Immigrants from Eastern Europe. — Before 1880 four- 
fifths of the immigrants came from the British Isles and north- 
western Europe. Since that time the immigrants from these 
regions have decreased, while others from southern and east- 
ern Europe have greatly increased. In 1882 the entrance 
of Chinese laborers was forbidden; in 1907, by a treaty with 
Japan, this rule was extended to Japanese laborers. Few of 
either of these races have been able to enter the United States. 
It is the Italians, Albanians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Servians, 
Magyars, Poles, Bohemians, and Lithuanians who have been 
coming lately in the largest numbers. Their homes are on 
the coasts of the Mediterranean and in the valleys of the 
Danube and the Volga. They are mostly rugged peasants, 
and they take up the hardest work in the United States. 
To them America is as much the Land of Promise as it 
had been at an earlier period to the Puritan, the Scotch, the 
Irish, and the Germans. 



THE NEWEST IMMIGRANTS 



493 



Many of the recent immigrants come from regions where 
the ancient Greeks and Romans once lived and where ruins 
of their great and beautiful buildings still remain. They love 
painting, sculpture, and music. The Slavs, also, are lovers of 
music. Some of the immigrants have become leaders in 
orchestras and musical societies. Like the Germans, French, 
and Italians, they have helped in spreading the love of 
music and other arts in the United States. 




Where the Immigrants go to Live in the United States 

The greater number of the foreign-born live in congested 
quarters in the large cities 



The Crowded Tenements. — Both the immigrants and the 
native Americans who have moved to the factory districts 
of the cities have been obliged to change their former 
mode of life. It is necessary for them to settle near the 
places where they work, often in crowded, smoky, dismal 
spots. Cheap tenement houses have been built for them. 
The laborer's place of work is commonly more grimy and 
cheerless still. In the mines and mills his work was done 
often amid great dangers from explosions of gases or from 
unguarded machinery. 

Organization of the Laborers. — As the business of manu- 
facturing or managing railroads was gradually organized in 
great corporations or "trusts," so laborers of all sorts were 



494 LABORERS OF A GREAT NATION 

organized. Small trade societies or unions had been common 
for many years. When prices rose during the Civil War, the 
laborers united in order to attempt to raise wages. Besides, 
the growth of manufactures, bringing together in the same 
industry, often in the same town, large bodies of laborers, 
made the formation of unions easier. The printers, the 
locomotive engineers, the cigar makers, the bricklayers, and 
the carpenters were among the first to form large organiza- 
tions of all workers in the United States. Others rapidly 
followed their example. 

On Thanksgiving day, 1869, a group of garment cutters in 
Philadelphia started a plan to unite all laborers into one body 
without regard to their particular kind of work. A powerful 
organization, called the Knights of Labor, grew from these 
small beginnings. A few years later, in 1881, another combi- 
nation was formed, called the American Federation of Labor. 
It united as many as possible of the labor unions of the United 
States and Canada into one body. Joined by a multitude of 
local city unions, state and national federations, and special 
organizations, it finally outnumbered the Knights of Labor. 
In addition to such organizations, the workers in many 
industries are separately combined in unions, like the Brother- 
hood of Locomotive Engineers, the Order of Railway Con- 
ductors, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and of 
Railway Trainmen. 

Objects of the Laborers' Unions. — The laborers have 
united to advance their own interests. This usually means 
to better their surroundings while working, secure higher 
wages, and shorten the hours of work. Many of their demands 
appeared so reasonable that they were supported by other 
people in the community. Wise railroad managers, manu- 
facturers, and business men generally became eager to improve 
the situation. The result is that the conditions under which 
work is done have changed for the better. For example, the 



THE PROBLEM OF THE LABORERS 495 

hours of work a hundred years ago were from "sunrise to 
sunset." In the early factories employees worked 14 or 15 
hours, part of the time by candle-light. About 1840 some 
trades reduced the hours to ten. In many trades the hours 
are now eight or nine. The average length of the working- 
day for all is only a little over nine. 

Memorable Strikes. — Formerly when the laborers were 
discontented with the wages or conditions of their work, they 
could go to the frontier and take up land. As the public 
lands gave out, laborers turned more and more to another 
way of bettering wages and shortening hours. This was by 
the strike. The men in a single factory or mill or railroad 
stopped work. Sometimes they were able to induce the 
workers in other occupations to join them. Since 1877 
hundreds of strikes have occurred in the United States every 
year. Some of them have brought on battles between the 
laborers and the employers. 

In 1877 a railroad reduced the wages of its men. It had done 
so several times. On this occasion the employees abandoned 
their trains, and tried to prevent others from running them. 
The strike spread to other railroads, and soon covered many 
of the railroads in fourteen states. At several places con- 
flicts occurred between the strikers and the soldiers sent by 
the state to keep order. Twenty-two were killed in one of 
these battles. Pittsburgh suffered the most in the destruc- 
tion of cars, depots, and freight, and in the loss of life. The 
city barely escaped a terrible fire during the struggle between 
the angry forces. This was the first great strike in American 
history. 

An even greater strike broke out in June, 1894, in the Pull- 
man Car Company's shops in Chicago. The company had 
reduced the wages unjustly, as the laborers felt. They 
had other grievances against the company. For one thing, 
the Pullman Company was the landlord, owning all the 



496 LABORERS OF A GREAT NATION 

houses of the town in which the laborers lived. The people 
disliked being both tenants and employees of the same com- 
pany. The strike which followed was long. The company 
steadily refused to arbitrate its differences with the men. 
Efforts were made to boycott all railroads using Pullman cars. 
The strike spread. The railroad men joined the strikers. 
The western Knights of Labor also struck, out of sympathy 
with the Pullman employees. Business almost came to a 
standstill as far west as the Rocky Mountains. President 
Cleveland sent United States soldiers to Chicago with orders 
to stop the interference with the railroads, partly because the 
trains carried the mails. Another reason was that the strike 
interfered with the welfare of people in no way interested in 
the original strike. 

The federal courts aided the President by issuing "blanket 
injunctions." By these all men were warned not to inter- 
fere with the railroads. Those who disobeyed were arrested, 
taken before a judge, and were tried by him, without the right 
to have the testimony heard by a jury as in ordinary 
cases. 

The loss of property was immense. If the value of the 
property destroyed and the loss of profits and wages be added, 
the amount would be about $80,000,000. Although few 
strikes have been as destructive, the total losses from them 
each year are very large. Fortunately, it is becoming more 
common to lay the demands of the employees, especially of 
railroads or coal mines, and the claims of their employers, 
before fair-minded men on " Boards of Arbitration" or 
"Boards of Conciliation." When this is done, each side 
agrees to accept the decision of the board. 

Employers' Associations. — The organization of strong 
labor unions led to the formation of employers' associations 
to resist the demands of the employees. Local manufacturers 
have, like their employees, formed local unions or associations. 



WELFARE WORK AND COOPERATION 497 

Owners in the same business have formed great national 
employers' associations. In 1875 the United States potters 
formed an association. A few years later the stove manu- 
facturers united into the Stove Founders' National Defence 
Association. Many others have been formed. In 1893 a 
National Association of Manufacturers was organized, which, 
like the Knights of Labor, included men from different parts 
of the country. In 1903 appeared the Citizens' Industrial 
Association. National, district, and local employers' associa- 
tions united to form this, as different labor organizations 
united to form the American Federation of Labor. One 
object of unions of employers has been to make " collective " 
bargains about wages with all the employees in their partic- 
ular industry. If the employees in the trade should strike, 
all the employers would stand together in the struggle. 

Welfare Work. — Some manufacturers and business men 
have been more eager to better the condition of their em- 
ployees than to resist their demands. They have provided 
night schools, kindergartens, and nurseries. Others have 
provided amusement parks, and public baths, and have built 
model factories. Sometimes the idea is simply that men 
will work better if they are comfortable, and that the 
profits of the business will be increased. But " welfare work " 
has often been due to a real interest in the welfare of the 
employees and a desire to increase their opportunities of 
self-development. 

Cooperation in Work. — ■ Employees and employers have 
not been the only classes to work together for their own good. 
In many parts of the United States the farmers or fruit 
growers have united to sell their products. In 1867 an 
organization called the Patrons of Husbandry was formed to 
make farming a pleasanter and more profitable occupation. 
It was commonly called the Granger movement, from the 
grange or local society. Local, district, state, and national 



498 LABORERS OF A GREAT NATION 

organizations were formed similar to the labor unions. An- 
other organization of farmers, started a few years later, grew 
about 1887 into the National Farmers' Alliance. These 
organizations have formed cooperative stores, creameries, 
elevators, and warehouses. They have done a great work 
in teaching the farmers how to help themselves and in bring- 
ing them together for their social welfare. Some of the 
organizations have established libraries, reading courses, 
lyceums, and local institutes or clubs for the study of 
questions in which they were especially interested. In such 
ways they have taken part in the educational movement of 
the time. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Why have cities grown rapidly in late years? Where are the majority 
oi the people in the older states living? 

2. Where do the immigrants usually settle? From what parts of Europe 
do they come? What classes of laborers are excluded? With what kind of work 
do the immigrants generally start in the United States? What valuable skill 
and taste do they bring to America? 

3. Why do so many people live in dismal tenements in crowded parts 
of cities? 

4. What is a labor union? Why did the laborers form such societies? 
Describe the larger organizations which the laborers have formed. 

5. What change has taken place in the length of the working day? What 
did laborers formerly do when discontented with their wages or conditions of 
work? What have they done in recent years? Tell the story of one strike, 
either one described in the text or one that has occurred in the neighborhood? 

6. What method has been used frequently to settle differences between the 
laborers and employers without striking? 

7. What step have the employers taken to combat the demands of the labor 
unions? Name some of the Employers' Associations which have been formed. 

8. Describe "welfare work." 

9. In what work mentioned in the text have people begun to cooperate or 
unite either for buying or selling ? 

EXERCISES 

1. Members of the class should gather information from their parents or 
friends wherever possible on (1) the wages in Europe when they left, (2) wages 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 



499 



they found paid in the United States, and (3) the change which took place in 
the work of each in moving from Europe to the United States. 

2. Is anything done in the local factories or mills that may be called " welfare 
work"? Visit some factory to see the conditions under which the laborers 
work. 

3. Describe any case of cooperation either in buying or selling of which the 
members of the class know. Were the results successful? 




* eesc + i'BS 

f J;a^«^ tf? 

-'■' I;,-;: ■-,' ■ Eft-.:: M 




t— L \ ■-' V--\ !w,_u^i-_ lJ h_! — li_: LiZ '23 ti- l-IV—- j — t_t -i 




The Immigrant Station at Ellis Island in New York Harbor 



CHAPTER XLV 

NEW METHODS OF GOVERNMENT 

To the Victors belong the Spoils. — Soon after the Civil 
War the American people were startled with stories of the dis- 
honesty of public officials, especially in the large cities. The 
citizens had been so occupied with building factories, laying 
railroads, sinking mines, forming companies for trade, and in 
settling the West, that they had not watched officials care- 
fully. Two harmful ideas about government, dating from 
Jackson's time, still prevailed. One was that any citizen was 
capable of holding office. The other was that the victorious 
political party might put out of office all its opponents and 
fill their places with its own members. The party leaders 
regarded offices as "spoils" which belonged to the victors in 
the elections. The result was that every new mayor or 
governor or president changed all the office-holders under 
him down to the clerks and errand boys. The task of dividing 
offices as rewards and favors among friends and party workers 
kept the best public officers busy when other things needed 
attention. Lincoln, besieged by office-seekers at the opening 
of the Civil War, declared that he seemed " like one sitting in 
a palace, assigning apartments to importunate applicants, 
while the structure is on fire and likely soon to perish in 
ashes." Matters had not improved since his day. 

Political Bosses. — Party managers, "political bosses" they 
were generally called, often managed the affairs of govern- 
ment to suit themselves. State legislatures and city councils 



CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 



5oi 




did as they ordered. When purchases were made or streets 
opened or buildings constructed, the state or city was charged 
prices higher than those charged to private individuals for 
similar things, and the difference was divided between the 
sellers and the officials. This method has been named " graft." 1 
A group of such " grafters," called at the time a "ring," led 
by William M. Tweed, 
stole $100,000,000 from 
New York City in three 
years. They paid a 
plasterer $3,000,000 for 
work they said he had 
done. As they alone 
kept the city accounts, 
no one could tell how 
they had used the 
money raised by taxa- 
tion. In 187 1 the 
thefts of the Tweed 
Ring were discovered and some of the band were punished. 
Such stories aroused the people. 

Civil Service Reform. — A remedy for dishonesty and mis- 
management was urged. Part of the officials were elected, 
but the larger number were appointed by the president or the 
governor or the mayor. It seemed clear that those officials 
who were appointed should be chosen solely because they 
were capable of doing their work well. The reformers argued 
that their fitness could be determined best by an examination 
in which all candidates were asked the same questions. This 
new method of selecting men went' by the name of "civil 
service reform," or the "merit system." Several men, 

1 The farmer grafts upon a branch of one tree a twig coming from 
another. So the dishonest official adds to the expense of a piece of work 
money for himself. 



A. V^ -C 

VMO 5T0H THE FWriES MW ? loo TELL .tamai, 'TWAS HltA- 

The "Tweed Ring" 
From a cartoon by Nast 




502 NEW METHODS OF GOVERNMENT 

among them Congressman Thomas Jenckes of Rhode Island, 
George William Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly, and Sena- 
tor Carl Schurz of Missouri, worked many years for the 
reform. Grant favored their plan and urged it in his messages. 

But Congress did not wish to lose 
the influence that the old system of 
appointment gave it, and little prog- 
ress was made in Grant's time. 
His successor, President Hayes, and 
the next President, James A. Gar- 
field, were also anxious to bring 
about the change. 

In 1 88 1, a few months after 
-" V >:|^> •.. | ./";.<-, Garfield became President, a disap- 
\, " ; ;V '/ /' pointed office-seeker assassinated 

him. This event showed one dan- 

James A. Garfield . , „ T , 

ger of the spoils system. It moved 

the people, and, finally, Congress to action. In 1883 a long step 

was taken by giving to three Civil Service Commissioners the 

duty of holding examinations to test the fitness of candidates 

for certain offices. The plan applied chiefly to clerkships 

in Washington, but it has been slowly extended. Nearly 

every President since 1883 has increased the number of 

government officials who must pass an examination. More 

than two-thirds of the positions under the United States 

Government were by 191 2 filled in this way. The successful 

candidates are expected to hold the office permanently, or 

until they are promoted. In 1910 President Taft urged 

that the "merit system" be extended to all postmasterships 

and to all offices in the diplomatic and consular service. 

Seven years later President Wilson adopted the reform for 

the postmasterships, putting about 10,000 postmasters under 

civil service rules. The same plan has been slowly applied 

in filling state and city offices. New York was the first state 

to adopt it, making the change in the same year that the 



THE GOVERNMENT OF CITIES 503 

national government began it; Philadelphia was the first 
city to introduce it. 

Mismanaging American Cities. — In spite of such attempts 
to place competent men in office, Americans have found it 
difficult to secure honest city government. They have often 
excused their failures on the ground that their cities have 
grown with great rapidity. English and German cities, 
however, have grown with equal rapidity and are well man- 
aged. The reasons of American failure have been of two 
kinds. The principal one is that citizens have been more 
interested in their business than in their government. The 
other is that many cities have been organized in such clumsy 
fashion that honest officials have had a hard task to manage 
their affairs well. 

Changes in City Government. — The cities have borrowed 
parts of their organization from the national or state govern- 
ments. Instead of a governor or president they have a mayor; 
instead of a legislature or congress they have a council. 
The council, like the state legislature and the national Con- 
gress, was commonly made up of two bodies. One body was 
supposed to correct the mistakes of the other. 

Most cities have abolished one of the bodies, concluding 
that two did more harm than good. New York City made 
the change in 1873. Many towns as they grew into large 
cities adopted newer and simpler forms of government. In 
recent years some have gone much farther, replacing mayor 
and council by a small commission or board. 

Galveston was the first city to try the commission plan. 
When a large part of it was wrecked by a great storm which 
swept over the Gulf of Mexico in 1900, the officials seemed 
helpless. The city needed better leadership. Several prom- 
inent men asked the state legislature to entrust the affairs of 
Galveston to a board or commission of five men. The legis- 
lature consented and a commission was chosen. One of the 



504 NEW METHODS OF GOVERNMENT 

commissioners was called the mayor. The new government 
accomplished such wonders that other cities adopted the 
plan. By the end of 191 6, nearly 500 cities had introduced 
commission government. Large cities like St. Paul and 
New Orleans are among the number. In some places — for 
example, Staunton, Virginia — the council or commissioners 
hired a city manager. 1 

The Short Ballot. — The plan of governing cities by small 
commissions has reduced the number of officials whom the 
voter must choose. The same result has been gained by 
entrusting to the mayor the appointment of the important 
officials, who form his " cabinet " and who manage the different 
departments of the city. The citizen in that case knows 
whom to blame or to praise. 

In many state and local elections the voter has been obliged 
to choose his list of officials from among over 100 names on 
what is called a "blanket" ballot. This has given reason to 
the cry for the "short ballot," in order that the voter may 
make fewer and more intelligent choices. 

Direct Primaries. — About 1889 another reform was begun, 
first in the South and West. The people had grown tired of 
the way the party managers controlled conventions, 2 leaving 
the citizen no choice but to vote for men whom the managers 
selected. Calhoun had said this would be the outcome when 
the convention system was first adopted. The southern and 
western states provided a system of primaries, at which the 
people had the right to nominate the candidates for elec- 
tion. The primaries took the place of the conventions. The 
system has varied considerably from state to state. The polit- 
ical parties often held their primaries at the same time. In 
some places if the candidate receives a majority of all the 
votes at the primary, no further voting at a regular election 
is necessary. In others the voter is allowed to give both his 
1 Staunton adopted the plan in 1908. 2 See page 325. 



RECENT CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT 505 

first and second choice in the primaries as well as in the final 
election. This is called preferential voting. 1 

Initiative and Referendum. — Another reform found popu- 
lar favor in the western states where the railroads had often 
controlled the members of the state legislatures. In 1898 
South Dakota adopted the " Initiative and Referendum." 2 
By means of the Initiative, if a certain part or fraction of the 
voters proposes a law, the legislature must consider it. If 
the legislature refuses to adopt it, it may then be submitted 
to the entire body of voters at an election. By the Referen- 
dum, if a certain number of the voters demand, laws which 
the legislature has just passed must also be laid before the 
voters for approval or rejection. Such a plan makes attempts 
to control or bribe a legislature unprofitable. It also enables 
the voters to have a part in lawmaking. The new system 
has moved slowly eastward into several of the older 
states. 3 

The Recall. — Still another plan to give citizens a more 
direct control of their officials is the "Recall." It was first 
adopted in the city of Los Angeles. According to this plan 
the citizens, upon petition of a certain number of them, are 
required to decide at an election whether an official's term 
should be ended earlier than at the close of the period for 

1 By 19 1 6 laws provided direct primaries for nomination of candidates in 
42 out of 48 states in the Union. Preferential voting has been adopted in 21 
states. 

2 South Dakota was merely the first state to adopt these as a regular part 
of the mode of making laws. The Initiative and Referendum had long been 
known and frequently used in other states for special purposes. This was 
especially true of the Referendum, which was regularly used for the ratification 
of constitutions. Both were part of the Swiss system of government. 

3 By 1916 the Initiative and Referendum were employed in 20 states. South 
Dakota adopted the system in 1898, Utah in 1900, Oregon in 1902, Nevada in 
1904 (part), Montana in 1906, Oklahoma in 1907, Main in 1908, Missouri in 
1909, Arkansas and Colorado in 1910, Arizona, New Mexico, and California 
in 1911, Ohio in 1912, etc. 



506 NEW METHODS OF GOVERNMENT 

which he was originally chosen. 1 Many cities have followed 
the example of Los Angeles when they have remodeled their 
methods of government. Oregon adopted the Recall for state 
officials in 1908. The Recall, like impeachment, has seldom 
been used. It goes much farther than the method of im- 
peachment, threatening the unpopular official, while impeach- 
ment threatens only the officials guilty of "high crimes and 
misdemeanors." 2 

Woman Suffrage. — One consequence of the change in 
the methods of manufacturing, replacing household indus- 
tries by work in the factory, has been a rapid increase in 
the number of women who work side by side with men. 
Women have, more than before, taken the lead in the great 
reforms of the time. Many of them have demanded the right 
to vote and to have a share in managing the affairs of city, 
state, and nation. In 1869, when Wyoming organized its 
territorial government, women were included among the 
voters. When the territory became a state, they kept the 
right to vote. In 1893 Wyoming's next neighbor, Colorado, 
adopted the same plan. By 191 7 more than one-third of 
the states had granted the privilege of voting to women. 3 

Direct Election of Senators. — One important change in 
government applied to the national system. Senators had 
always been elected by the state legislatures. Several cases 
where candidates were known to have bribed legislatures to 
vote for them aroused much opposition to the old way. Be- 
sides, legislatures often spent much of their ordinary session 
in a quarrel over who should represent the state in the United 

1 The Recall like the Initiative and Referendum had long been in regular 
use in Switzerland. 

2 By 191 3 the Recall had been adopted in eight states and many cities. 

3 The states are Wyoming (1869), Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), Idaho 
(1896), Washington (1910), California (1911), Arizona, Kansas, Oregon (all in 
1912), Illinois (partial, 1913), Montana and Nevada (1914), New York (1917), 
Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Rhode Island (all partial,' 191 7). 



RECENT CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT 507 



States Senate. In 1913 an amendment to the Constitution 
took away from the legislatures their privilege of choosing 
senators and gave it to the people of the states in their regular 
fall elections. 

City Planning. — The new interest in the management of 
cities has shown itself in other ways besides methods of 




*fc^ 



Wsmmmm 






The Capitol at Washington 
The Supreme Court, the Senate, and the House of Representatives meet in the Capitol 

government. Many Americans, as well as Europeans, have 
ceased to look upon their city merely as a very large, hap- 
hazard collection of houses, clustered about factories, stores, 
railroad stations, and steamboat wharves. They have begun 
to think that cities should be planned as carefully as a person 
plans his dwelling. They argue that each person, however 
small his income, should have a share of sunlight and pure 
air, and should be able to go rapidly and cheaply to his place 
of labor. The location of residences and factories, of large 
and small streets, and of railway lines, should be planned 
carefully. The builder of one house should not be allowed 
to make his neighbor's house uncomfortable. Parks, play- 



5 o8 



NEW METHODS OF GOVERNMENT 



grounds, bath houses, and social halls are already provided 
in many places. The citizens are beginning to work together 
to make the city healthful and beautiful, as well as successful 
in its industries. 

Some Interesting Presidential Elections. — The Republican 
party was in power in the national government most of the 
time from the Civil War to 1913. At the close of Johnson's 
administration in 1869 General U. S. Grant became President. 
He owed his election to the feeling in the North that next to 
Lincoln he had done the most to save the Union. Some of 
the men whom he chose as advisers were opposed by many 
of their own party. In 1872 these discontented Republicans 
broke away and formed the Liberal Republican party. They 
nominated for the Presidency Horace Greeley, editor of the 

New York Tribune. Although 
he was also supported by the 
Democrats, he was badly de- 
feated by Grant, who was the 
candidate of the regular Repub- 
licans. The Republicans were 
also successful in the elections of 
1876 and 1880, in which their 
candidates were Rutherford B. 
Hayes and James A. Garfield. 
In 1884 the Democrats nomi- 
nated Grover Cleveland. He had 
been mayor of Buffalo and gov- 
ernor of New York. In these offices he had made a name as 
one who paid little regard to politics and managed public 
business "as a good business man manages his private con- 
cerns." The independent Republicans, called " Mugwumps," 
voted for Cleveland, because they liked his work as a reformer. 
They distrusted his Republican opponent, James G. Blaine. 
Cleveland was elected, and the country had a Democratic 




PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 



509 




Benjamin Harrison 



President for the first time since Buchanan. Congress, how- 
ever, was divided. The Republicans had a majority in the 
Senate. A Democratic House and President could do little 
with the Senate against them. 
In 1887 the two parties agreed 
on one memorable law, the In- 
terstate Commerce Act. By it 
Congress provided for a com- 
mission of five members which 
should see that the railroads 
carrying goods from one state to 
another treated all shippers fair- 
ly. The power of the commis- 
sion was enlarged in later years. 
In 1888 the Republicans won 
the election, making Benjamin 
Harrison President. Four years later the Democrats re- 
elected Cleveland. Whether the tariff should remain high 

was one of the main issues in 
the second election. Another 
was whether all the silver 
brought to the government 
mint should be coined into 
silver dollars at the ratio of 16 
silver dollars to one gold dol- 
lar. 1 The hardest contest over 
such questions came in the 
election of 1896. The Demo- 
crats put forward William J. 
Bryan of Nebraska, and the 
Republicans William McKinley 
of Ohio. McKinley won, and became President when 
Cleveland's term ended. 




William McKinley 



1 The tariff was the main issue in the eastern states, and silver in the western. 



5i° 



NEW METHODS OF GOVERNMENT 




Theodore Roosevelt 



McKinley had barely begun 
a second term as President in 
1 90 1 when he was assassinated. 
For the third time in the his- 
tory of the United States a 
President was killed. This time 
an anarchist was the assassin. 
The Vice-President, Theodore 
Roosevelt, became McKinley's 
successor. President Roosevelt 
was reelected in 1904, and his 
Secretary of War, William H. 
Taft, followed him in 1908. 
New issues had gradually arisen 
in the long period of Republican control of national affairs. 
The tariff remained little changed. How to- save the 
country's natural resources and how to control the great 
trusts, or corporations divided 
the parties even more sharply. 
The Republicans were not 
agreed among themselves 
upon these questions. In the 
election of 191 2 one branch of 
the Republican party, led by 
former President Roosevelt, 
and called the Progressives, 

battled with the other parties. « ', &*\m 

The Republicans, the Demo- 
crats, and the Socialists each 
offered an answer to the new 
questions. With the Repub- 
lican party divided, the Demo- 
crats elected their candidate, Governor Woodrow Wilson of 
New Jersey. 




William H. Taft 



IMPORTANT NEW LAWS 



5ii 



The followers of the new President had a large majority 
in Congress. Laws to carry out the more important party 
pledges were passed. The tariff on imports was much re- 
duced, and a little later a tariff commission was established 
to help Congress fix fair duties on imports. Laws were 
passed to give the Government of 
the United States fuller control 
of trusts and other large business 
organizations. A system of Fed- 
eral Reserve Banks was created 
to do the work formerly done by 
the United States Bank which 
President Jackson had destroyed. 
The Reserve Banks represent the 
government in the banking busi- 
ness of the country and supply 
the amount of paper money, 
Federal Reserve notes, which is 
needed for carrying on trade. 
A law of 1 91 6, somewhat like 
the Federal Reserve act, established a system of Federal 
Farm Loan Banks to aid the farmers with government loans 
at reasonable rates of interest. Before this, in 1914, the 
United States had decided to build a government system of 
railroads for Alaska, in order to open for settlement a new 
frontier and to put on the market for the benefit of the 
American people the products of its forests, its mines and 
its soil. These were important laws, but the completion of 
the Panama Canal, and the Great European War attracted 
more attention. The story of the Panama Canal, which 
had been begun in Roosevelt's time, and of the Great War, 
will be told in a later chapter. In 1916 President Wilson 
was chosen for a second term, though the number of his 
party in Congress was reduced by the election. 




Woodrow Wilson 



512 NEW METHODS OF GOVERNMENT 

QUESTIONS 

i. What harmful ideas about government prevailed long after Jackson's 
time? What is the meaning of the phrase "political boss"? "grafter"? 
How did the Tweed " ring " steal millions of dollars from New York City? 

2. What remedy for dishonesty in government was urged in Grant's time? 
Who were the leaders in the movement for Civil Service Reform? What was 
the effect of the assassination of President Garfield on Civil Service Reform? 
Describe the Act of 1883. Has the " Merit System " been extended since 1883? 

3. Why were American cities badly managed? What changes have been 
made in city government to make it simpler? Where did the commission 
plan of government originate? What plan originated in Staunton, Virginia? 

4. What other method besides the commission plan has been used to reduce 
the number of officials for whom the citizen must vote? 

5. What are the Initiative and Referendum? What is the Recall? Why 
were these adopted in the United States? 

6. What new class of voters has lately been added? Where did this move- 
ment begin? 

7. What change took place in 1913 in the method of electing United States 
Senators? 

8. What is meant by " city planning " ? What changes have taken place 
in the methods of conducting campaigns? 

EXERCISES 

1. Find out whether the federal, state, and town offices of the locality are 
filled by the Merit system or by the Spoils System. 

2. The members of the class should describe the local government of the 
place where they live. When was the present form of local government 
adopted? Is it satisfactory to the voters? 

3. Examine a ballot of the last election. Was it a "short ballot" or a 
" Blanket Ballot " ? Were the candidates nominated by direct primaries or 
by conventions? 

4. Do the voters of the state have a share in law-making by the Initiative 
and Referendum? Do they have the right of Recall of officials? If so, have 
any officials been recalled? 

5. Review the extension of the number of voters, pages 323-324. Find 
out whether woman suffrage has been adopted in other countries. 

Important Dates: 

1883. Congress passes the Civil Service Reform Act. 

1893. Colorado is the first state to adopt Woman Suffrage. 

1896. The Free Silver Campaign with William McKinley and William 

Jennings Bryan as Republican and Democratic candidates. 
1915. Opening of the Panama Canal. 
191 7. The United States enters the Great War against Germany. 



CHAPTER XLVI 
THE NEW EDUCATION 

The Schools Since 1876. — The last thirty or forty years 
have seen as great changes in the schools as in manufacturing 
and in methods of government. Not only has the number of 
pupils steadily increased, until in 1910 it numbered nearly 
eighteen millions, but new kinds of schools have been added. 
Much of the new work prepares the pupils directly for what 
they expect to do after they leave school. The improvement 
in managing schools and in teaching the ordinary subjects, 
reading, arithmetic, and geography, has also been important. 

Graded Schools. — The early schools were ungraded, as 
many rural schools still are. Each teacher kept the same 
pupils from the time they began their A B C's until they left 
school. The division of the schools of cities and larger towns 
into grades was made before the Civil War. In recent years 
the plan has been extended to the rural schools. A large 
township school often takes the place of several district 
schools. In such cases wagons are provided to carry the 
children to and from school. The school year has also been 
lengthened. Some cities keep their schools open throughout 
the year, except for short vacations. Pupils may begin sub- 
jects in the middle, as well as at the beginning, of the year. 
By this plan those who are kept away for a time by illness 
lose only a few months instead of a whole year. 

High Schools. — Many public high schools and private 
academies had been established before the Civil War, but 



5i4 



THE NEW EDUCATION 



from 1870 to 1^00 the number of high schools increased 
rapidly. By the end of that period every town or city and 
many rural districts had high schools. These high- schools 
do for their communities much that the early American col- 
leges did for the first groups of settlements. 

New Subjects. — The chief task of the graded school is 
still to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. 
Every year the number of persons in the United States who 
cannot read and write is decreasing. In 1910 it was only 
seven or eight in every hundred, and only three in each 
hundred of those born in the United States. In this matter 
the United States is behind Great Britain and Germany, but 
ahead of Italy and Austria. 

In the upper grades the pupils learn more about history 
and government than did their fathers. In history they 
study more about the way people lived, about industry and 
trade, and less about war. Another important subject, called 
hygiene, teaches the pupil how to keep the body healthy. 
In many schools the boys are taught to work in wood, and the 
girls to cook and to sew. Some schools have gardens in which 
the pupils may learn to raise vegetables for the use of their 
families. These changes have led parents to make a greater 
effort to keep their children in school. Several states have 
passed laws forbidding children to leave school until they 
have reached a certain grade and are fifteen or sixteen years 
of age. 

Changes in High Schools. — The first high schools, espe- 
cially in the eastern states, existed chiefly to prepare boys for 
college. Latin, Greek, and mathematics were the principal 
subjects. The American people soon concluded that such 
schools could educate only a few of the boys and girls, because 
only a few went to college. Before i860 the Boston English 
High School had added many other subjects, including book- 
keeping and surveying. Later the high schools began to 



HIGH SCHOOLS 



5i5 



group their students in "courses." Those who intended to 
go to college were put into one group and called "classical" 
students. Within the last fifteen or twenty years still greater 
changes have taken place. Separate high schools have been 
founded with the aim of teaching their students what they 




A Technical High School which runs Evenings 

need to know in the work for which they are preparing. The 
Manual Training or Technical High Schools train boys for 
work in wood and iron, for drafting, designing, and other tasks. 
They prepare girls for designing, sewing, and cooking. After 
finishing the course of study most of the students begin work 
at once, while others go to higher technical schools to obtain 
greater knowledge and skill. The Commercial High Schools 
prepare boys and girls for the practical work of business. 
In communities where no such separate high schools exist, 
the newer subjects are taught in the ordinary high schools. 
In some states agriculture is now taught in the high schools 
or in special schools. 

Agricultural High Schools. — Agricultural high schools 
teach their pupils how to manage a iarrr^ to grow fruit, to 
care for animals, and to conduct a dairy. They also teach 
many of the subjects taught in other high schools. In some 



516 THE NEW EDUCATION 

of these schools, especially in Wisconsin, the teachers not only 
teach the boys and girls who attend but they also aid farmers 
of the region in planning their buildings and drainage, in 
testing seeds and soils, in selecting animals and trees, and they 
assist the housewives in arranging their kitchens and drains, 
and in preparing and testing food. Each high school has its 
libraries, shops, laboratories, and workrooms. Indeed the 
new aim is to make the rural high schools model school-farms, 
and those in the cities model school-shops and factories. 
The study of books is retained so that the students may 
understand the world about them as well as be fitted to do 
some useful work in it. 

Colleges and Universities. — The growth of colleges and 
universities has been as rapid as that of common schools and 
high schools. Wise and generous men have given large sums 
to the older colleges, in order that they may do more work. 
Other men have founded new colleges and universities. The 
gifts of one man founded Johns Hopkins University, in Balti- 
more, in 1876; of another Leland Stanford University, at 
Palo Alto, California, in 1891 ; of still another re-founded 
Chicago University in 1892. Other generous men have 
established special institutions in which highly trained men 
and women endeavor to discover ways of preventing disease 
or to find methods by which the people may do their work 
better. 1 

The states west of the Alleghanies, as well as a few of the 
older states, have placed a university at the top of their plan 
of public education. They thus offer free education not only 
to the child in the early grades of the common school and 
in the high school but also to the young man and woman in 
the state university. 

As soon as the Northwest Territory was opened for settle- 

1 For example, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York 
City and the Carnegie Institution in Washington. 



HIGHER EDUCATION 



517 



merit, the national government began to give land for the 
founding of colleges and universities. During the Civil War 
it made a still more liberal offer, promising each state many 
thousand acres, the amount in proportion to its population. 
The money obtained from the sale of the lands was used to 




Experiment Station Farm 
United States Department of Agriculture 

pay for teaching agriculture and other technical or practical 
arts. Some states founded separate agricultural or technical 
colleges, others gave the new work to their universities. 
Massachusetts divided the income from its share between an 
Agricultural College at Amherst and an Institute of Tech- 
nology at Boston. New York, partly by use of the land grant, 
partly by the use of its ordinary income, and partly by gifts 
of citizens like Ezra Cornell, built up a great state university 
at Ithaca, called Cornell University. 

In 1887 the United States again came to the aid of higher 
education, giving each state $15,000 a year for the improve- 
ment of agriculture. This money is used to maintain experi- 
mental or practice farms and dairies and laboratories for the 
study of problems connected with agriculture. Farming is 
becoming less a mixture of drudgery and chance and more 
a skilled occupation like medicine and law. 



518 THE NEW EDUCATION 

Higher Education for All. — The colleges in the colonies 
were established mainly to educate young men who expected 
to become Christian ministers. The graduates of these col- 
leges also became lawyers and physicians. For a long time 
few went to college or the university except those who in- 
tended to enter such professions or to become writers and 
teachers. With the founding of technical or engineering 
colleges a change came, especially within twenty or thirty 
years. Now the young man or woman, whether he or she 
is going into one of the older professions or into industry, 
or business, or is to manage a farm, may find in some depart- 
ment of the best universities training for each kind of work. 
The students not only use books, but they work in shops and 
laboratories upon tasks similar to those for which they are 
preparing. The states have also established normal schools 
in which teachers are trained for the public schools. 

Many states are attempting to carry opportunities for higher 
education to the people in their homes. The University of 
Wisconsin, for example, has more students working under its 
guidance while living at home than it has regular students 
at Madison. The University offers courses to the people by 
correspondence, or in classes in selected towns of the state. 
Teachers from the University guide the students in practice 
work, assist them in their studies, and help them by lectures 
on difficult subjects. In such ways the universities are work- 
ing for the whole people more than formerly. They still 
carry on studies and experiments in order to broaden knowl- 
edge; they now do much more to spread among all the 
people information about every new discovery or invention. 
Finally, by sending their teachers throughout the state, they 
help officials, the voters, business men, and all workers to 
solve their problems or do their work to better advantage. 

School-Houses as Social Centers. — Some cities and states 
have begun to make larger use of their school-houses. The 



LARGER USE OF SCHOOL-HOUSES 



5i9 



schools are supplied with books and magazines and news- 
papers in order to provide a reading-room for old as well as 
young, or with a traveling library sent from the state or city 
library. Club rooms, gymnasiums, bath rooms, and play- 
grounds provide other means of recreation for the people of 
the neighborhood. This plan makes the school-house a peo- 
ple's club and an educational center. 




The Neighborhood Using the School Building 

Parks and Playgrounds. — In this period, also, many cit- 
izens have learned that it is not enough to provide schools 
where boys and girls may remain a few hours of the day for 
most of the year. They have concluded that the cities 
should provide parks and playgrounds where the young people 
may enjoy healthful games after school hours instead of 
loafing about the street corners or ninning risks by playing in 
the streets. Such playgrounds are not mere open fields, but 
grounds suitable for games, under the care of some one who 
understands how interesting games are played. Chicago set 
a good example to other cities by providing a playground in 
Washington Park in 1876. Twenty years passed before much 



520 



THE NEW EDUCATION 



more was done there or in other cities. Then Chicago ap- 
pointed a commission whose business it was to establish play- 
grounds in parts of the city so crowded with buildings that 
little open space for play remained. Other cities took up the 
work. In 1910 more than a third of the cities of the United 
States had such playgrounds. 

These playgrounds are for men and women as well as 
children. Near the grounds a large house has often been 







A Chicago Playground 

built, suitable for neighborhood parties, for picnics, or for 
dances. Park and house together are called "recreation 
centers." By means of them thousands of people have 
gained for the first time an opportunity for wholesome play. 
Five million persons used the recreation centers of Chicago 
in one year. Such are a few of the new methods of education 
for the people. 



QUESTIONS 

1. What changes have taken place in the town and rural schools since 1876? 
In the high schools? 

2. What new subjects are taught in the schools? In the high schools? 
What special kinds of high schools have been built? 

3. Describe the method and aims of the agricultural and technical high 
schools. 



QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 521 

4. How did the colleges and universities secure money to extend their work? 
What has the United States done to help higher education? What have the 
states done? 

5. For what were the colleges in the colonies established? For what reason 
do people now go to college? 

6. How do the universities now attempt to broaden their usefulness? 

7. What use do some places make of their school houses? Why do cities 
establish playgrounds? 

EXERCISES 

1. Locate the colleges and universities of the state. How are such schools 
supported? What kind of education does each offer? 

2. Find examples of work done by neighboring colleges or universities 
similar to that done by the University of Wisconsin. 

3. Visit some school center and cit) playground and describe its work. 



CHAPTER XLVII 
THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

Struggle for Colonies. - — The United States for more than 
a century found plenty of lands to be colonized in the Missis- 
sippi Valley, the Far West, and on the Pacific Coast. Few- 
Americans desired to conquer colonies beyond the seas. 
Meanwhile other nations had again become rivals in the 
struggle for colonial territories. The English, ever since the 
Revolutionary War had deprived them of the best part of 
their colonial possessions, had been busy adding one new 
colony to another. Their colonial empire had become world- 
wide, and they could boast that upon it the "sun never sets." 
The French, who had lost the Mississippi and St. Lawrence 
valleys in 1763, had also been building up a new colonial 
empire, this time in northern Africa and southeastern Asia. 
Since 1884 the Germans had been establishing colonies in 
Africa, on the coast of China, and in the Pacific islands. In 
1898 the United States followed such examples, taking posses- 
sion of several colonies after a war with Spain. 

The Spanish War, 1898. — President McKinley, early in 
his administration, was obliged to decide how the United 
States should act in a war which had broken out between the 
Cubans and the Spaniards. Spain had ruled over Cuba since 
the time of Columbus. The Cubans, like the Mexicans and 
South Americans long before, were trying to put an end to 
Spanish rule and to found an independent republic. The 
war had been raging two or three years and the island was 
being laid waste. Stories of the cruelty of Spanish generals 
and of the sufferings of the Cubans aroused the sympathy of 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 



523 



the American people. Some Americans had property in 
Cuba worth, all told, nearly $50,000,000, and they were 
anxious to have the war stopped. 

The Destruction of the " Maine." — It had already become 
hard to keep the peace between Spain and the United States, 
so strongly did many Americans urge their government to 
compel Spain to satisfy the Cubans. The Spaniards, on their 
side, were enraged at the assistance that Americans privately 
gave the Cubans. In February, 1898, the American battle- 




Manila and the Pasig River 

Showing the Magellan monument and the stone bridge connecting 
the walled city with Binondo 

ship Maine, at anchor in the harbor of Havana, was blown 
up, causing the death of two officers and 258 seamen. Most 
Americans believed that the Spaniards had destroyed the 
ship and clamored for war against them. McKinley reluc- 
tantly yielded and war was declared. 

The War. — The conflict with Spain was brief, lasting only 
from April to August. The Spaniards, who had spent their 
resources in a vain effort to conquer Cuba, were unprepared 
for a longer war. On May 1 , Commodore George Dewey, with 
a small fleet, easily destroyed a much inferior Spanish fleet 
in Manila harbor. Spain sent to Cuban waters a squadron 



524 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

under Admiral Cervera, but it was soon shut up in the harbor 
of Santiago by a larger American force under the command 
of Admiral Sampson. In order to make the capture of the 
Spanish ships in Santiago sure, an army of about 16,000 men, 
commanded by Major-General Shafter, was transported from 
Port Tampa, Florida, and landed on the coast near Santiago. 1 
Finally, on July 3, the Spanish fleet made a heroic effort to 
escape through the United States fleet stationed before the 
entrance to the harbor. After a running fight the Spanish 
vessels were destroyed. Santiago soon surrendered. Another 
American army under General Nelson A. Miles over-ran Porto 
Rico. A third, with some help from the natives, captured 
the city of Manila, in the Philippines, completing the task 
that Commodore Dewey had undertaken. About this time 
the war came to an end. 

Spain's Loss of Colonies. — In the treaty with Spain, 
Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands were ceded to 
the United States. Spain in return received $20,000,000. 
Cuba was given its independence. Spain thus lost the last 
remnant of her once vast colonial empire in the New World. 
Her influence, nevertheless, remained. The people of the 
countries of South America, except Brazil, of Central America, 
Mexico, and several of the West India islands were still largely 
Spanish. 

The New Territories of the United States. — In the midst 
of the Spanish War Congress annexed the Hawaiian Islands, 
with the assent of a majority of the inhabitants. These 
islands are half-way stations to Japan, China, and the 
Philippine Islands. Any nation which controlled them would 
possess excellent harbors for its navy and would increase its 

1 One cavalry troop, called the "Rough Riders," under the command of 
Colonel Leonard Wood and Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, was com- 
posed principally of western cowboys, Indians, football players, and adventurers. 
The doings of this regiment excited much interest throughout the war. 



NEW TERRITORY GAINED 



525 



power in the Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiians had first been 
taught the ways of civilization by American missionaries. 
Many Americans had settled in the islands. Under their 
lead a few years before an attempt had been made to over- 
throw the native rulers and add the islands to the United 
States. President Cleveland, however, had refused to sup- 
port this plan of annexation. In the islands, at the present 




"The Cross-Roads of the Pacific" 

time, besides the Hawaiians and the Americans, there are 
many Japanese and Chinese. 

In the Philippines there are more than 3000 islands. Luzon, 
the largest, is about the size of Ohio. More than 7,000,000 
people inhabit the archipelago, varying from the highly 
civilized Spaniards and Filipinos, to the rudest savage tribes. 
The islands are only half explored and the natural resources 
almost untouched. 

When Commodore Dewey attacked the Spanish fleet in 
Manila Bay, the natives were already trying to overthrow 
Spanish rule. They welcomed the Americans, whose forces 
made certain the defeat of the Spaniards. Many of them 



526 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

were angry when they discovered that they had simply changed 
masters, and they attacked the American army. This new war 
lasted about three years. As soon as possible after its close 
the Americans gave the natives a share in the government of 
the islands. Americans are divided upon the question 
whether the Filipinos should be made independent or should 
remain under American control. 




A Public School in Porto Rico 

Solving New Problems. — In the newly-gained territories 
of the United States and in Cuba natives and Americans have 
worked well together. Much has been done to make the 
islands more healthful. Major Walter Reed, an army sur- 
geon, discovered that malaria and yellow fever are carried 
by mosquitoes. He concluded that if these little pests were 
destroyed, those diseases would die out. It was one of the 
world's great discoveries. Yellow fever, the scourge of all 
tropical countries, and especially of the West Indies and the 
southern cities of the United States, was conquered. Besides 
helping Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines to conquer 
disease, and besides building roads and harbors, the United 
States has tried to establish its free school system among 
them. More than a thousand American school teachers have 
been sent to the Philippines. 



THE PANAMA CANAL 



527 



ATLANTIC 
OCEAN 




The Panama Canal. — The most interesting story of work 
done in a tropical climate is that of the Panama Canal. Before 
the war with Spain began, the battleship Oregon was stationed 
on the Pacific 
coast. As it was 
needed in the West 
Indies for the 
coming struggle 
with the Spanish 
fleet, it was or- 
dered to steam at 
full speed around 
South America, a 
distance of 13,000 
miles. The people 
of the United 
States waited 
anxiously for the 
news that it had 
reached the other 
ships in the West 
Indies. They 
saw that many 
days would be 
saved if there 
were a canal 
through the Isth- 
mus of Panama. 1 

■^ . Relief Map of the Panama Canal 

r or centuries 

men had dreamed of such a canal. They thought that they 




Hirafhrei 



"i * 



,„** 




PACIFIC 
OCEAN 



1 There were other reasons which made the people wish to have a canal. 
For example, an "all-water" highway from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic 
would enable shippers to send their goods from one coast to the other at less 
cost than by the railroads. 



528 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

could cut the passageway which Columbus had tried in vain 
to discover. In 1536 the king of Spain formed a plan for a 
ship canal near the Chagres River. A French company 
started in 1881 to build one, but became bankrupt before 
the work was half finished, seven years later. 1 




From New York 



Routes Passing Through the Panama Canal 



Comparative Distances 

I To San Francisco The Orient Melbourne Callao Valparaiso- 

via Magellan 13,135 13,566 12,852 9,613 8,380 

via Panama 5,262 9,798 10,392 3,363 4,633 

Difference 7,873 3,768 2,460 6,250 3,747 



I via Magellan 13,502 13,933 13,425 9,980 8,747 

From Liverpool \ via Panama 7,836 12,372 12,966 5,937 7,207 

I Difference 5,666 1,661 459 4,043 1,540 

The Builders of the Canal. — President Roosevelt and his 
Secretary of State, John Hay, next took up the task on be- 
half of the United States. They bought the rights of the 
French Company, and entered into an agreement with the 

1 The French Company spent $260,000,000 in its efforts to build a canal. 



THE PANAMA CANAL 



529 



little republic of Panama by which a strip or zone ten miles 
wide was secured. 1 Medical officers, of whom Colonel Gorgas 
was the chief, made the region a safe place in which to live, 
as they had learned to do in Cuba and the island possessions 
of the United States. An army officer, Colonel Goethals, 




Locks in the Panama Canal 



was given general charge of the task. Digging the passage- 
way through the hilly part was begun in 1906, where the 
French had left off many years before. A dam on the Chagres 
River, besides furnishing the water for part of the canal, 
made a waterfall from which dynamos produce sufficient 
electricity to furnish power and light throughout the canal. 
The first boats passed through the completed canal in 1914, 
though the formal opening was celebrated in 19 15 with an 
Exposition at San Francisco. Vessels now pass through the 
canal in 10 or 12 hours, while the voyage around South 
America would take from 30 to 45 days. The canal brings 
the coasts of the United States closer together, and is also 
rapidly becoming a highway of trade for all the world. 

1 The United States paid the French Company $40,000,000, and to Panama 
$10,000,000, and promised the latter also an additional yearly payment or 
rental of $250,000 beginning in 1913. 



53Q THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

To provide convenient supply stations for ships on this 
trade route the United States purchased the Virgin Islands 
from Denmark in 191 7 at a cost of $25,000,000. 

The Hague Tribunal, 1899. — In the year following the 
Spanish-American War the United States took part in a 
meeting of the great nations for the purpose of finding a way 
to prevent wars. The United States had settled about sixty 
disputes by arbitration. No other nation except England had 
so good a record. Upon the suggestion of the Czar of Russia 
a conference was held at The Hague in Holland. Twenty- 
nine nations were represented. The United States, because 
of its experience with arbitration, was able to take a leading 
part. The conference agreed that each government should 
appoint four judges who should form a Hague Court of Arbi- 
tration. From the list of judges any two nations might 
select a small court by which their dispute could be settled. 
The plan would save delay in forming a special court, and 
would keep before the world a better way than warfare for 
the settlement of disputes. Another and larger meeting, 
this time at President Roosevelt's suggestion, was held at 
The Hague in 1907. Andrew Carnegie afterwards caused a 
great peace palace to be built for the Hague Tribunal and 
for the use of the nations in their conferences. 

The Great War in Europe. — President Wilson had been in 
office only a little more than a year when a great European 
war broke out. This came as a surprise and a shock to 
most Americans. They knew that the principal countries 
of Europe had long been divided into two groups — on the 
one hand the Triple Alliance, composed of the German Em- 
pire, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and Italy; and on the 
other France, Russia, and Great Britain. They had been 
told that at several times within ten years these two groups 
were on the verge of war, and that each country was adding 
steadily to its army and navy. However, nearly every one 



THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 531 

was convinced that a general European war was impossible, 
for all realized what a terrible calamity it would be. They 
did not think any government cruel enough to bring it about. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Where did England, France, and Germany obtain colonies in the nine- 
teenth century? When did the United States obtain colonies beyond the seas? 
How did the United States obtain its colonies? 

2. Why did the people of the United States want to stop the war in Cuba? 
What reason had the Spaniards for becoming enraged at the people of the 
United States? What was the effect of the destruction of the Maine? 

3. What happened during the brief war with Spain? What colonies did 
Spain lose by the war? In what ways did Spanish influence remain in the New 
World? 

4. What colony had the United States obtained during the war with Spain? 
What people live in this colony? Why did the United States have a war with 
the Filipinos? 

5. What was the discovery of Major Walter Reed? What has the United 
States done for its colonies? 

6. Why did the people of the United States desire a Panama Canal ? Wh 
had tried to build one? What did the medical officers of the United States dv. 
to aid in the work? 

EXERCISES 

1. Learn as much as possible about the resources, geography, and people of 
the colonies. 

2. What nations should the Panama Canal benefit by shortening the routes 
of trade? See map, page 528, with the chief distances by the old routes as well 
as by the new routes made possible by the canal. 

Important Dates: 

1898. War with Spain and the annexation of Porto Rico, the Philippines, 

and Hawaii. 
.1899. The Hague Tribunal established. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 

Why Germany was willing to have War. — The German 
Empire had grown mightily since 187 1. The population had 
increased from forty to seventy millions. The people ceased 
to be occupied mainly with agriculture, and more than half 
of them were engaged in mining, manufacturing, and com- 
merce. Their ships were seen on every ocean. Their mer- 
chants were successful in marketing goods all over the world. 
Yet the German leaders were not satisfied. As their Emperor 
said, they wanted "a place in the sun." He meant that the 
place should be so large that other peoples would stand in the 
shadow. It is true that nearly all lands suitable for coloniza- 
tion had been occupied before the German Empire was 
created, and that the few colonies which Germany had founded 
were unprofitable. But this was no reason for turning the 
world upside down or robbing more fortunate neighbors. 

Berlin to Bagdad. — There was one part of the world in 
which the German leaders were becoming more and more 
interested. This was the Balkan Peninsula, which lies south 
of Austria-Hungary, Germany's ally for nearly forty years. If 
we study a map showing the mountainous regions of south- 
eastern Europe, we shall see that the great route from Berlin, 
Vienna, and Budapest to Constantinople crosses Serbia, 
following for many miles the valley of the Morava. The 
Emperor William from the very beginning of his reign sought 
to appear as the special friend and protector of the Turks and 
of their Sultan, the notorious Abdul Hamid. He visited 
Constantinople and journeyed as far as Jerusalem. A Ger- 

Copyright, 1919, by D.C Heath & Co. 532 



THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 



533 




534 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

man general reorganized the Turkish army. This friendship 
profited German engineers and bankers, for they obtained the 
privilege of building railways, especially a railway through 
Asia Minor and down the Euphrates Valley to Bagdad and 
the Persian Gulf. 

If German money and German industry should bring back 
prosperity to this region, it would become quite as valuable 
to the Germans as would a colony. They would have some- 
thing to set over against the British control of Egypt. If 
war should ever break out with the British, troops might 
be sent toward Egypt over the new railway, and a fatal blow 
struck at the British Empire, for Egypt is a halfway house 
to India. 

Austria and the Balkans. — Germany's allies, the Austro- 
Hungarians, were interested in this scheme, but they were 
still more anxious to gain control of the Balkan Peninsula 
as far as the iEgean Sea at Salonika. The inhabitants of the 
peninsula had no desire to come under Austrian rule. For 
centuries they were oppressed by the Turks, but had nearly 
rid themselves of these masters. In the northern section 
nearly all the peoples were branches of the South or Jugo- 
slav race. The Serbians had been the first to become inde- 
pendent. 

Bosnia, west of Serbia, half of whose inhabitants are 
Serbians, was annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. This 
angered the Serbians, who believed that men of the same race 
should have the right to live together under rulers of their 
own choosing, and not be parcelled out among powerful 
neighbors. Every advance that Serbia made was jealously 
watched by Austria. In 1913 when the Serbians took from 
Turkey lands long inhabited by their kindred, Austria pro- 
posed to begin a " defensive war " upon Serbia, but Germany 
advised Austria to wait. She did wait, though only for 
another pretext. 



THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 535 

If Austria-Hungary should control the Balkan Peninsula, 
and Germany the Turkish Empire, the whole of Central 
Europe and Western Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad, would be 
under the influence of these two allies. 

Who in Germany could decide for War? — When the pre- 
text for war should be found, the rulers of Germany meant 
that their armies should strike smashing blows before their 
opponents were ready to move. The German army in 1913 
had been increased to 800,000 men, with three or four times 
as many more in reserve, who could be called to the colors. 
No other army except the Russian was nearly as large, and 
the Russian army was poorly supplied and had only a small 
stock of munitions. The railroads in Germany were planned 
to carry vast numbers of men to any frontier, east or west, 
with the greatest speed. Were these preparations simply 
for defense, or were they meant for use when a convenient time 
came to attack neighboring countries and rob them of border 
provinces? The decision upon this question rested with a 
little group of officials about the "Supreme War Lord," as 
the German Emperor called himself. 

The Imperial German Government included a parliament, 
named the Reichstag; but, unlike the English House of 
Commons, it did not control either the Emperor or his principal 
minister, the Chancellor. One of its own members spoke of 
it as no better than a debating society. Whether the German 
Emperor and his advisers would decide for war or for peace 
was not very hard to guess. They seemed readiest to listen 
to the Pan-Germans, who were always talking about the 
might of Germany and the necessity of more territory for 
German growth. One of these Pan-Germans, General von 
Bernhardi, declared that in the next war the German rallying 
cry should be, "World power or downfall." 

The Pretext. — Austria had to wait only a year for a 
pretext. On June 28, 1914, the Archduke .Franz Ferdinand, 



536 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in 
Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Although the assassins 
were Austrian subjects, they were of Serbian stock. Austrian 
and Hungarian officials declared that Serbia was the real 
conspirator, and that the assassins were only vulgar tools. 
Germany was ready to support her ally, in spite of the fact 
that an attack upon Serbia might bring on the general war 
so much dreaded. 

Serbia's Champion. — The nation that stood in the way 
of Austria's having her will with Serbia was Russia. Both 
the Serbians and the Russians belong to the Slav race. Their 
religion is the same. It was to Russia that Serbia owed her 
freedom from the Turks. Slavic peoples felt so strong a 
sympathy for each other that the Germans accused them of 
being Pan-Slavs, favoring the union of all Slavs against other 
European peoples. It is certain that the Russians were in no 
mood to see Austria-Hungary destroy Serbia's independence. 

War Begins. — The Austrians first sent to Serbia a series 
of harsh demands. Serbia accepted all but one or two, and 
these she could not accept without sacrificing her independence. 
Austria refused to submit the question to The Hague Tribunal, 
and hastened to declare war. Great Britain urged all to 
join in a conference. Germany replied that this was im- 
possible, because the question concerned only Austria and 
Serbia. She also said that Great Britain's best efforts should 
be used to persuade Russia to stand aside. But Russia was 
serious and began to assemble her armies. Germany then, 
on August i, declared war, in order to get her armies in motion 
before Russia should be ready to act. 

As France was the ally of Russia, Germany prepared to 
attack her also. The French were so anxious to avoid war, 
unless it was forced upon them, that they kept their soldiers 
several miles from the frontier until the German government 
declared war. 



THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 537 

Great Britain enters the War. — Germany's first act forced 
the British to take up arms. This act was the invasion of 
Belgium, a neutral state, pledged to fight on neither side. 
To understand the reason we must study the map and remem- 
ber that Germany meant to crush France before the Russians 
had time to assemble large armies on the eastern frontiers of 
Prussia. If France was out of the fight, the German generals 
argued that the Russian forces could soon be defeated. 

The frontier between France and Germany runs from 
Luxemburg to Switzerland through a region broken by hills 
or ranges of mountains. Any advance toward Paris, even 
if the French should be driven back, would be difficult and 
slow, because the German armies would have to force their 
way up the eastern slopes of one plateau after another. This 
would give time for a Russian advance. The German generals 
therefore decided to take the quickest road into France, which 
was straight across the wide plains of Belgium. As the 
French did not expect an attack in that direction, the Germans 
thought that they could sweep on through the open rolling 
country of northern France to the gates of Paris. 

Germany, as well as France and Great Britain, had agreed 
by treaty that no army should enter Belgium. In spite of 
this, crying out that " Necessity knows no law," and that the 
treaty was only "a scrap of paper," the Germans started to 
"cut their way through." The consequence was that, on 
August 4, the British parliament declared war. The British 
people felt that their pledges to Belgium must be kept. 

The German Plan breaks down. — The brave Belgians tried 
to bar the way to the Germans, and succeeded in holding them 
for a few days before Liege, a strong fortress town on the 
Meuse. The Belgians were finally crushed under the weight 
of numbers. Their army retreated toward the coast, while 
the Germans marched southward through Brussels to the 
French border. A small British army, all that was then ready, 



538 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

was promptly despatched to France to help the French defend 
their frontier. 

The German hosts outnumbered both French and British and 
pressed into France not only from Belgium, but also through 
Luxemburg and Lorraine. They advanced with astonishing 
speed until they had crossed the Marne and were directly 
east of Paris. The French capital seemed to be doomed 
and the Government was moved to Bordeaux. Verdun, the 
great fortress on the northeastern frontier, was nearly sur- 
rounded. Nevertheless, early in September, the French and 
the British rallied for a supreme effort. They broke the 
center of the long German lines and captured thousands of 
prisoners. The Germans had expected a decisive victory; 
they were disastrously defeated. The plan to crush France 
had failed. This has been called the First Battle of the Marne. 
Its hero was General Joffre, the leader of the French. 

The German plan broke down in the East as well as in the 
West. The Russians assembled their armies so rapidly 
that they invaded East Prussia before the Germans were 
ready to defend that frontier, and German troops had to be 
drawn by rail from their armies in France to check the invaders. 

The Germans had still another disappointment before 
autumn was over. They tried to drive the Belgian army 
out of Belgium and to take the Channel ports, Dunkirk and 
Calais. They did succeed in capturing Antwerp, Bruges, 
and Ostend, but nothing beyond. The southwestern corner 
of Belgium remained unconquered. Arras could not be 
captured, and the French coast was safe. Reinforcements 
and supplies for the French could cross from England to 
France unhindered by the German armies. 

Becoming a World War. — The war had not been going on 
many months before all the world seemed divided into two 
huge armies. Japan, as Great Britain's ally in the Far East, 
joined in the struggle. Even China and Siam eventually, 



THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 539 

declared war upon the Germans. It was a world war in 
another way, too. Great Britain had never had universal 
military service, but was now obliged to send into the battle 
lines all able-bodied men not needed in industry. The motto 
was "Work or fight." Before the war was over five million 
Britons had been called to the colors. If we should add 
together the armies of all countries engaged in the war, the 
total would be more than fifty million men. Most of these 
countries took the side of France, England, and Russia, but 
Turkey and Bulgaria fought on the German side. 

A small group of Turkish schemers, led by German agents, 
forced the Turkish Empire into the war. The consequences 
were serious for Russia, especially because the Turks could 
close the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. With the outlet 
of the Baltic Sea already closed by the Germans, Russia had 
to obtain supplies over the Trans-Siberian Railway from 
Vladivostok, on the Pacific, thousands of miles away, or 
from Archangel on the White Sea, which is frozen half the 
year. 

This misfortune was offset early in 19 15 by the entrance of 
Italy into the war on the side of the Allies. The Italians 
sympathized with the French who had been so unjustly 
attacked by Germany. They also were anxious to bring 
under their flag the Italians who lived under Austrian rule 
in the Trentino, in Trieste, and all along the northeastern 
border. These lands they called "Unredeemed Italy," which 
should be added, they thought, to the other states united in 
the Kingdom of Italy. 

The action of Italy ended the famous Triple Alliance which 
had lasted more than thirty years. Soon, however, there was 
a Quadruple Alliance, for Bulgaria joined Germany, Austria, 
and Turkey. The other name for this alliance was the 
"Central Powers." Bulgaria's motive was to gain territory 
of which she believed she had been wrongfully deprived by 



54© THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 




Serbia and Greece. The consequence was that Serbia was 
soon over-powered. The road from Berlin to Constantinople 
was open. 

The next year the Roumanians suffered a similar fate. 
They joined the Allies expecting help from Russia, but the 
Russian armies were disorganized and without supplies. As 
the British and French fleets could not break through the 

Dardanelles, the Roumani- 
ans were shut off from help. 
Battles were fought in 
still more distant parts of 
the world. The Turks and 
the Germans tried to attack 
Egypt and seize the Suez 
Canal. They struggled 
with the British for mastery 
in the valleys of the Tigris 
and the Euphrates, and 
with the Russians in the 
mountains of Armenia and on the borders of Persia. The 
whole world was full of turmoil and the clash of arms. 

New Methods of Fighting. — This war differed from former 
wars not only in the number of soldiers, but also in their 
manner of fighting. When the Germans retreated from the 
Marne, they entrenched themselves in Belgium and northern 
France, in one continuous line from the Channel to Switzer- 
land. The British and the French likewise "dug in," as the 
soldiers called it. At short intervals deep shelters or "bomb 
proofs," were constructed to protect men and officers from 
exploding shells. In front of the trenches was stretched row 
upon row of entangled barbed wire. The trench system of 
the Germans was finally named the "Hindenburg Line," from 
their favorite general, who, they thought, could never be 
beaten. 



An American " Whippet " Tank 




THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 541 

In an attack the first thing was to smash the enemy's de- 
fenses by the fire of hundreds of cannon. The soldiers then 
leaped out of their trenches and charged. This they called 
"going over the top." The artillery sent a stream of shells, 
or a "barrage," just ahead to break down the resistance of 
the enemy. In the later years of the war the British con- 
structed steel tanks, or tractors, with caterpillar wheels, and 
armed with rapid- 
firing cannon. The 
heavy tanks could 
crash through every 
obstacle, while the 
light tanks, or 
"whippets," moved 
swiftly upon the 
enemy's lines, open- A Large British Bombing Plane 

ing the way for the advancing soldiers. 

Of all the methods the most wonderful was the fighting in 
the air. The Germans at first trusted in enormous Zeppelin 
airships, but these proved to be no match for swift airplanes. 
Both sides relied on armed biplanes, which fought singly or 
in squadrons. Sometimes these battles took place two miles 
above the earth. Airplanes were also used for scouting. 
Often they were fitted with instruments for making photo- 
graphs of the enemy's position. 

Sea Power. — From the outset the British navy, aided by 
the French navy, controlled the sea. This control was of 
immense value to Great Britain and her allies, for it enabled 
them to draw food and other supplies from neutral countries, 
such as the United States. It also enabled them to blockade 
Germany and her allies, cutting these countries off from the 
same markets, with the consequence that the Germans and 
Austrians were soon short of cotton, wheat, copper, rubber, 
and other important articles. 



542 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

German " Frightfulness." — War is always cruel, but the 
German leaders deliberately added to its terrors. They 
seemed to think that if they thoroughly frightened the in- 
habitants of an invaded country, its soldiers would lose 
courage, abandon all resistance, and sue for peace. Many 
things that they did were expressly forbidden in treaties 



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The Interior of the Library at Louvain after 
the German Troops had Passed 

An example of ruthlessness 

they had signed. Here again they held that " Necessity 
knows no law." 

When they first advanced into Belgium they burned towns 
and shot numbers of the inhabitants, women as well as men, 
if they suspected even a few individuals of having fired upon 
them after the Belgian army had withdrawn. Upon such 
an excuse Louvain, with its cathedral and university, was 
burned. In their invasion of northern France they acted in 
the same way. The only consequence was to excite general 
horror and to steel all hearts against a thought of yielding. 

The same consequence followed other ruthless practices. 



THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 543 

From the very outset bombs were dropped from Zeppelins on 
cities many miles from the battle lines. Antwerp was the 
first victim, then Paris, and then London. As these raids 
occurred at night many of the inhabitants, women and 
children as well as men, were killed in their beds. After 
several of the Zeppelins had been destroyed by airplane 
squadrons or by cannon shots, the Germans carried on the 
raids with swift airplanes. 

In 191 5 the Germans began the practice of sending clouds of 
poison gas over lines which they proposed to attack. This 
was first tried against British troops near Ypres. Such 
fiendish methods were unsuspected and the soldiers who 
breathed the poison died in agony. To guard against the dan- 
ger, masks were soon invented and distributed to the troops. 

The Allies in self-defense were obliged to produce gases for 
use in battle. They also raided German cities from the air, 
although they generally dropped their bombs on railroad 
stations and munition works. 

Frightfulness on the Sea. — The German leaders carried 
"f rightfulness" into warfare on the sea, where fighting, 
terrible as it might be, had always been done with knightly 
courage and noble courtesy. Their means was the submarine 
or U-boat. Claiming that the British blockade had brought 
slow starvation upon the women and children of Germany, 
and that this gave them the right of retaliation, they threat- 
ened to sink all vessels, even those belonging to neutral 
countries, which sailed to or from the shores of Great Britain, 
France, and Italy. The attack by the submarine was usually 
made by discharging a torpedo under water, and a fearful 
explosion was often the first notice a ship had that a U-boat 
was near. The sailors and passengers often did not have time 
to launch the lifeboats before they were engulfed with the 
ship. If they did get away in boats, they might be scores of 
miles from the nearest shore and doomed to perish miserably. 



544 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

The most ruthless deed of the kind was the destruction of 
the great Cunarder Lusitania, which was sunk without warning 
in May, 191 5. More than eleven hundred men, women, and 
children were drowned, among them 114 Americans. 

The Neutrality of the United States. — A few nations 
remained neutral to the end of the war. If their lands, like 
those of Holland and Denmark, lay open to German attack, 
they had little choice in the matter, however strong their 




The Struggle for Life in the Sea after 
the Sinking of the "Lusitania" 

sympathies might be with the cause of the Belgians and the 
French. At first it seemed to be the duty of the United 
States to maintain a careful neutrality. Ever since Wash- 
ington's time the American people had been taught to beware 
of "entangling alliances" and to stand aloof from European 
conflicts. To many the war at first appeared to be a struggle 
between two rival European groups of nations, — Germany 
and Austria-Hungary on the one hand, and France, Russia, 
and Great Britain on the other. The great majority of 
Americans, however, sympathized with France and Great 
Britain, especially after they read the stories of the cruelties 
of the German armies in Belgium and northern France. And 
they felt no doubt that Germany would soon suffer a well- 



THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 545 

deserved defeat. Many generous young men were eager to 
have a share in the triumph of the good cause and crossed the 
border to Canada to enlist, while others went directly to 
France. 

The United States enters the War. — As the war went on, 
leading Americans saw that their country would inevitably 
be drawn into the struggle. They began to realize what were 
the purposes of the military masters of Germany. The suc- 
cesses of the German armies tempted German writers and 
speakers to boast how they were to make the world over. 
Smaller and weaker nations were to have no place*. The law 
of might was to be the rule. When Serbia and Roumania 
were overrun, when the Russian armies were forced far back 
within their own frontiers, and when the German hold upon 
northern France seemed unshakable, the dream of power 
cherished by the Pan-Germans seemed to be dangerously near 
to a reality. Such a Germany would threaten the peace of 
the United States. The German Emperor said to the Ameri- 
can ambassador, "After the war I shall stand no nonsense 
from the United States." 

Another reason for the change in American feeling was the 
conduct of German consular officials in our principal cities 
and of members of the staff of the German legation at Wash- 
ington. They constantly plotted to stop the trade between 
the United States and the Allies by blowing up munition 
factories or by putting bombs in ships about to leave port. 
They also planned to destroy bridges and canals in Canada 
and to start insurrections in India. 

It was the ruthless attacks of submarines upon merchant 
vessels and passenger ships which changed Germany from a 
secret foe to an open enemy. According to the honorable 
customs of the sea, if merchant vessels were captured and had 
to be sunk, the crews must be carried ashore. To drown them 
was sheer piracy. 



546 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

After the sinking of the Lusitania President Wilson solemnly 
warned the German Government that the United States 
would omit no act necessary to safeguard the lives of its 
citizens. A year later the Sussex was wrecked by a torpedo 
fired by a submarine lurking off the French coast. Eighty 
persons were killed or wounded, two of the wounded being 
Americans. The protests of the United States extorted from 
Germany a half-hearted promise not to repeat the deed. 

Nevertheless, on January 31, 191 7, the German Govern- 
ment gave notice that from the next day on, its submarines 
would sink all ships sailing to or from the Allied coasts. 
President Wilson immediately broke off diplomatic relations 
with Germany. Regardless of his warnings the Germans 
began sinking American vessels. Just at this time it was 
discovered that Germany had been trying to persuade the 
Mexican Government to attack the United States and attempt 
with German aid the reconquest of Texas, New Mexico, and 
Arizona. 

The American people were convinced that to yield to the 
threats of a foreign government would be to surrender their 
rights as an independent nation. They were ready to give 
a united support to President Wilson when, on April 2, he 
asked Congress to declare that the German attacks were 
acts of war. They saw, as he said, that the war had become 
a struggle for liberty, for the freedom of each people, small 
or great to pursue its work in peace, threatened neither by 
ambitious princes, nor by nations eager to increase their 
power or enlarge their boundaries. Both Houses of Congress 
by large majorities declared war upon the German Imperial 
Government. 

Approach of a Crisis. — "Hurry up, America!'' was the 
call often heard in spring and summer of 1917. The war had 
been going on for nearly three years, and still a decisive 
victory for the cause of the Allies seemed far away. In Bel- 



THE GREAT WAR IN EUROPE 547 

gium and northern France the battle lines had changed little 
since the autumn of 1914. The British and French armies 
drove the Germans back, yet slowly and at fearful cost. The 
Italians had made some progress along their northern frontier, 
although they had not reached Trent and Trieste. Serbia and 
Roumania were in a sad plight, occupied by German, Austrian, 
and Bulgarian armies. The Allies, however, aided now by the 
Greeks, held the region around Salonika. In the north the 
situation was worse. The Russian armies, without supplies, 
defeated and disorganized, were ready to give up the fight. A 
revolution had broken out in Petrograd and had overthrown 
the Czar. The new government failed to rally the people or 
the troops to continue the struggle. It was only a question 
of time when the Germans would be able to transfer most of 
their forces from the eastern front to France and Belgium. 
Would the Allied troops be able to resist the fresh onset? 
Would America be in time to help? 



QUESTIONS 

1 . Why was Germany willing to have a war? What did Germany wish to 
do in Turkey? Austria-Hungary in the Balkans? What was the Berlin to 
Bagdad plan of Germany? 

2. Who in Germany had the power to begin a war? Did the Reichstag have 
all the powers of the English Parliament? 

3. What pretext did Austria-Hungary find for having its way in the Balkans? 
Why did Russia become the champion of Serbia? 

4. How did Serbia try to prevent a war? Great Britain? France? 

5. Why did Great Britain enter the war? Why did Germany attack 
Belgium? Why did Italy refuse to help Germany and Austria-Hungary, her 
former allies? 

6. Why did Germany's war plans at the beginning fail? 

7. Why did Turkey and Bulgaria later join Germany and Austria-Hungary? 
Italy the Allies? 

8. What advantage did the British and the French have on the seas? 
How did they combat the German submarines? 

9. What methods of " frightf ulness " did the Germans use on land and sea? 
10. Why did the United States enter the war? 



548 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

EXERCISES 

i. Make a list of the nations that entered the war and the reasons of each 
for being at war. 

2. Collect pictures of the new methods of fighting in the war. 

Important Dates: 

August i, 1914. The beginning of the World War. 
April 6, 191 7. The United States enters the wan 



CHAPTER XLIX ' 
THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR 

Preparations for the War. — It was one thing to declare war, 
but quite another to make ready to take part effectively in 
such a gigantic struggle of men and machines as had been 
going on in Europe for nearly three years. The task of pre- 
paring plans was given to a Council of National Defense, 
composed of members of the President's cabinet and men 
drawn from private life. Among the many things they had 
to consider were transportation, munitions, food, clothing, 
medicine, and sanitation. Committees of business men, 
engineers, doctors, etc., were formed to aid the Council. 
Hundreds, even thousands, were eager to help, for the people 
were convinced that this was their war. 

Sending Warships to Europe. — One of the first tasks of the 
United States was to assist the fleets of the Allies in protecting 
the merchant vessels which were carrying supplies, chiefly 
between Great Britain and France, or between the United 
States and Great Britain, France, and Italy. Scores of these 
vessels were being sunk every month by German submarines. 
Our Government, therefore, sent a large number of battleships, 
cruisers, and destroyers to European waters. Hundreds of 
smaller craft were hastily organized as a "mosquito fleet" and 
set to guarding the American coast trade against submarines. 
The work called for thousands of laborers, seamen, and gun- 
ners. Naval recruiting stations assembled these men and 
sent them to training stations where they were prepared for 
the new work. 

549 



55° 



THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 



Making a Great Army. — A second task was to enlarge and 
remodel the army. It was not enough to have men trained 
to use rifle, bayonet, and field gun. Mechanics, truck drivers, 
engineers, aviators, tank drivers, and flame and gas fighters 
were just as important. The regular army in April, 191 7, was 




25 .50 
BATTLE FRONTS 

September 1914 

.......... January 1915 

January 1918 



a force of about 122,000 men. The state organizations, called 
the National Guard, barely 150,000 men, were summoned 
for national service. 

The first step was to call for volunteers in order to increase 
the regular army and the national guard to about one million. 
A much larger army than this being considered necessary, 
Congress adopted the "selective service" system. All men 
between the ages of 21 and 31, later on between 18 and 45, 



THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR 551 

were required to register. If they were not needed for work 
in important industries, they were called to the camps as fast 
as means of training could be provided. Before the war was 
ended more than 3,750,000 men had been added to the army. 
The Training Camps. — Huge camps were built to train all 
these men. Offices, shops, barracks, exercise grounds, and 
gun ranges were prepared at convenient places throughout 
the United States. Vast groups of buildings seemed to 
spring up like "boom" towns in the West. What in the 




A view of an American Training Camp 

spring was a field became by fall a bustling city of forty or 
fifty thousand men. 

The camps were great schools for a new kind of national ser- 
vice. Special schools were provided for the training of officers. 
Sixteen were opened on May 15, 191 7. There were also schools 
for aviators, schools of "fire" for gunners, schools for drivers 
of tanks, and for other equally necessary duties. There were 
even schools for recruits who had never had a chance to learn 
the English language, although they were already American 
citizens. Eighty per cent of the men in one regiment, in others 
fifty per cent, were of foreign birth. Whole companies were 
made up of Poles, or Russians, or Greeks, or Italians. All 
were eager to become well-trained American soldiers. 



552 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

The Welfare of the Soldiers. — The plans of the camps 
included hospitals, theaters, libraries, club houses, and 
recreation grounds. The club houses were sometimes "huts" 
or canteens managed by the Red Cross, the Young Men's 
Christian Association, the Knights of Columbus, or the 
Young Men's Hebrew Association. They were sometimes 
"community houses" where the soldiers could meet their 
relatives and friends. Games and athletic sports were pro- 
vided in which the entire camp. had a share. Part of this 




Playing Games after Drill in an Army Camp 



work was under the control of the War Department's Com- 
mission on Training Camp Activities. 

Preparations in France. — Soon after the war began the 
Government announced that an army would be sent to France 
and that General John J. Pershing would be its commander. 
In June, 191 7, he crossed the ocean to make ready for the 
arrival of the soldiers. As all the camps in France were 
crowded with French and British soldiers it was necessary for 
the Americans to build new camps. The wharfs and store- 
houses at the ports were enlarged in order to receive the great 
quantities of supplies which the soldiers would need. Loco- 
motives and cars had to be sent from America, because 
the French railroads were already overworked. Hardly a 
thing done for the training camps at home but had to be done 
in France. The organizations which worked for the men in 



THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR 553 



the United States worked for them in their French sur- 
roundings. 

The first American soldiers reached France soon after 
General Pershing. They were instructed by British and 
French veterans in all the tricks of the enemy. This final 
training required about four months. On the night of 
October 23 a small body of these American troops took over 
from the French a section of the 
battle line. They were brigaded 
with the French; a battalion of 
the one, then a battalion of the 
other. Batteries of American guns 
were paired with French batteries. 

Raising Food for All. — The sol- 
diers at the front or in the camps 
Were only part of the great army 
America was organizing to help win 
the war. The workmen in the mills 
and the farmers in the fields were 
equally needed. America was 
asked to send food to the Allies, 
for so many of the English, French, 
and Italian farmers had fallen in battle or were still fighting 
that food was scarce. To decide how much should be sent 
abroad and to see that the rest should be fairly distributed 
at home, the Government appointed Herbert C. Hoover as 
Food Administrator. He had already been very successful 
in distributing food among the suffering Belgians. In response 
to his appeals the American farmers endeavored in 191 7 to 
increase their crops, and in 19 18 to increase them still more. 
Boys and girls, as well as older persons, planted war gardens 
everywhere. The United States Department of Agriculture, 
the State Agricultural schools, and the County Agricultural 
Agents pointed out how larger crops could be raised. 




John J. Pershing 



554 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

It was necessary to make a careful use of the food which 
was produced. Cards were distributed telling what to save 
and what each one's share should be. Model kitchens were 
established in order that housewives could learn better how 
to save food. 

One way to check waste of food was to fix certain days on 
which people were asked to eat no wheat either at home, or 
in restaurants, or in hotels. There were also meatless days. 
Bakers were required to mix other kinds of flour with wheat. 
Limits were placed upon the amount of flour and sugar grocers 
could sell to a family. In a few cases the prices were fixed 
by an order of the Government. 

Other Forms of Control. — It was equally important to 
have enough coal. Miners were urged to add millions of tons 
to the supply. An administrator was appointed to see that 
fuel was fairly distributed. The prices were fixed. The 
winter of 1917-1918 was very cold and there was not enough 
fuel to satisfy our own wants and to provide for the steamships 
which were plying between our ports and Europe. It became 
necessary to have "fuelless" days, when mills and stores were 
obliged to close. 

To add to the supply of food and fuel was useless unless the 
railroads could carry the new burdens. More locomotives 
and cars were demanded. Trains must be more heavily 
loaded and sent to their destination by the shortest routes. 
All this required great sums of money. The business had to 
be directed from one office rather than from a hundred. The 
consequence was that the Government took control of the 
railroads and appointed a railroad administrator. Just before 
the armistice of November, 19 18, the Government also 
assumed control of the telegraphs and telephones. 

The Bridge of Ships. — The next task was to add ships. 
At the beginning of the war the United States had compara- 
tively few. The British supplied many, but these were not 



THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR 555 

enough. Ninety-nine German steamships which were in 
American ports were seized and used to carry men and supplies 
to Europe. For example, the giant steamship Vaterland 
became the Leviathan. Three huge Government shipyards 
were established, and more than a hundred other yards on the 
Atlantic or Pacific coasts or on the Lakes were pressed into 
the work of constructing wooden or steel ships. Steamships 
built especially for the ore trade on the Lakes, and too large 
to pass through the Welland Canal, were cut in two parts, 
the open ends temporarily closed, the parts towed to the 
seaboard and there rejoined. The ship then took its place 
in the growing fleets of ocean liners. 

By the middle of the summer of 1918 the United States and 
the Allies in Europe were building ships faster than the Ger- 
man submarines could sink them. The number of ships 
running between the United States and Europe made what 
the President said would be needed to win the war, a "bridge" 
to Europe. 

Liberty Loans and War Savings Stamps. — The training 
camps, "the bridge of ships," and the supplies for the armies 
in Europe cost enormous sums of money. Besides these the 
Government was obliged to lend the Allies many millions 
with which to buy war material in the United States. It had 
cost about $12,000,000 a year to carry on the war for Inde- 
pendence, and about $1,200,000,000 a year to wage the war 
to maintain the Union, but the war against Germany cost the 
United States for the first year over $13,000,000,000. Con- 
gress increased the taxes so as to raise about one third of the 
money. The rest the people were asked to lend. In return 
they received Liberty Bonds, or, if the sums were small, 
War Savings Stamps. The Government asked for fourteen 
billion dollars; the people offered to lend nearly eighteen 
billion. This does not include more than one billion dollars 
worth of War Savings Stamps which were bought. Citizens' 



556 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

committees, volunteer bodies of men and women, in every 
city and village of the land, rallied the rich and poor in 
the work of raising Liberty Loans. School children joined 
eagerly in saving to buy War Savings Stamps. 

Women's Work in the War. — As the war went on all 
nations learned the value of woman's work. There were not 
enough men left to do all that was necessary in fields, mines, 
and factories. Most of the work of the Red Cross fell to the 
share of women, especially nursing, making bandages, and 
preparing comforts for the soldiers. It has already been said 
that they joined in saving food and that they helped in raising 
money. Others went into the harvest fields and factories. 
There was no call for work which they were not ready to 
answer, no matter how heavy the task. 

The Crisis at Hand. — As winter drew toward its close the 
Germans massed their forces for a final struggle. Their 
leaders were ready to sacrifice thousands of men if only they 
could win a victory so crushing that the Allies would be forced 
to make peace. They had more men than ever, because 
war-weary Russia, torn by new revolutions, had abandoned 
the fight, and it had become possible to transfer many German 
divisions from the Eastern to the Western front. 

The Germans made their great attack on March 21, 1918, 
in Picardy, near St. Quentin, where the lines held by the British 
armies joined the French lines. At first they were successful, 
because the British were taken by surprise and were outnum- 
bered three to one. The Germans swept on for thirty-seven 
miles until they were within sight of Amiens, a railroad center 
and supply station for the whole British line. Had they 
captured Amiens they might have pressed on toward the 
Channel or turned southward and captured Paris. The 
heroic efforts of British and French troops sent to reinforce 
their exhausted comrades stopped the advancing Germans 
and saved the cause. 



THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR 557 



The Allies learned a lesson from the nearness of disaster. It 
was the need of unity of command. This was an old lesson, 
but very hard to apply when several nations act together, 
because each government naturally prefers to control its 
own troops: Nevertheless, Great Britain, Italy, and the 
United States now accepted General Foch, the new leader of 

the French armies, as the su- 
preme commander of all the 
Allied armies. At the same time, 
as reinforcements were desper- 
ately needed, plans were made 
to hasten the transportation of 
men from the training camps in 
the United States to the front 
in France. The British Govern- 
ment lent hundreds of its ships 
to aid our Government in mak- 
ing the "bridge of ships" a 
reality. The United States had 
sent 50,000 men a month to 
Europe in 191 7 ; it now increased 
the number to nearly 300,000 a month. 

However, the Germans continued their tremendous drives 
against the Allies, hoping for victory before large American 
forces should arrive. In a second battle they attempted to 
crush the British army in Flanders. The "dogged pluck" 
of the British troops stopped the Germans, and the Channel 
ports were again saved. A third German blow struck the 
French line between Soissons and Rheims. A break here 
might open the road to Paris and perhaps force the French to 
make peace. The battle drove a third wedge or salient into 
the Allied line before the Germans were brought to a stand- 
still. This time American troops had an important share in 
defeating the enemy. 




Ferdinand Foch 



558 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

Chateau-Thierry. — At the time the German advance 
reached the Marne the United States had nearly a million 
men in France. Many of them were already well-trained 
soldiers. At the height of the battle on the Marne General 
Dickman was sent with American troops to the aid of the 
French. A brigade of marines was also sent. A desperate 
battle was fought in the neighborhood of the town of Chateau- 
Thierry. The Germans were repulsed; and the credit was 
due partly to the French, partly to the Americans. 

The Tide of Battle turns. — In their repeated "drives" 
since March 21 the Germans had lost heavily in men and 








.J; 1 

%&!**' Jill-! lift 










Chateau- Thierry in July, 19 18 



munitions. Nor could they longer fill such gaps. The 
appearance of increasing numbers of Americans on the battle 
lines showed them that victory was now impossible. 

The turn of the Allies came in the middle of July when 
the Germans attempted to break through the French and 
American lines south of the Marne, in other words to deepen 
the "pocket" which they had made between Soissons and 
Rheims. They had fought their way ahead only three or 



THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR 559 

four miles when French and American armies further north, 
ordered by General Foch, threatened to close the mouth 
of the pocket altogether. Nothing but a hurried retreat 
saved these German armies from capture. 

From this time until the armistice was signed on November 
1 1 General Foch never gave the Germans time to recover from 
one defeat before he inflicted another upon them. There was 
fighting all along the line from the Channel to Switzerland, but 
the hard blows fell first in the center, then far away on the 
left, again on the right. In August the British attacked the 
Germans in Picardy and steadily regained the ground they 
had lost in March. On the 12th and 13th of September 
American armies drove the Germans from an advanced 
position, or salient, which they had long held at St. Mihiel 
and which endangered Verdun. In two days the Ameri- 
cans captured 15,000 men and recovered 200 square miles of 
territory. 

The most difficult task given to the American armies was 
the expulsion of the Germans from the Argonne Forest. The 
whole region, made up of wooded hills, had been turned into 
a network of barbed wire, of concealed pits, of hidden machine 
guns, and of every other means of defense which the Germans 
could invent. The American losses were terrible, and yet 
they pressed on victoriously. West of the Argonne the 
French were constantly driving back the Germans. In north- 
western France and Belgium the Belgians, Canadians, and 
British were equally victorious. Village after village, city 
after city, tortured by four years of German rule, was delivered. 
By the end of the first week in November the advance of the 
French and the Americans from the south, and of the British 
and Belgians from the west threatened half the German armies 
with destruction. 

Other German Disasters. — Meanwhile the news from 
Germany's allies was bad. Early in September the Bui- 



560 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

garians, exhausted, had given up the fight. The Turks were 
in no better plight. Months before a British and Arab army 
under General Allenby had captured Jerusalem. Now these 
same forces had captured two Turkish armies and had taken 
Damascus and Aleppo. The Turks thereupon asked for an 
armistice. Austria-Hungary, Germany's only other ally, was 
soon overcome and forced to cease fighting. 

The Armistice. — The German plan of conquering Europe 
had failed dismally. Part of the German armies were caught 
in a vise. The German people were beginning to revolt. 
Rather than face a worse disaster the German Government 
accepted the terms imposed by the Allies and the United 
States. This took place on November n, 1918, a memorable 
day in the history of mankind. 

By the terms of the armistice the Germans agreed to with- 
draw from Belgium and France, including Alsace-Lorraine, 
as well as from all other foreign territory in any part of Europe 
which they had overrun. They were to surrender immense 
numbers of guns, airplanes, locomotives, and freight cars. 
The Allied armies were to occupy German territory as far as 
the Rhine. A large part of the German fleet was to be in- 
terned in neutral or Allied harbors. The final terms of peace 
were left to a Peace Congress which was to meet in Paris. 

Revolution in Germany. — As the war ended the German 
people turned in anger against the leaders who had brought 
disaster upon them. The Socialists seized the govermnent. 
The Emperor, William II, and the Crown Prince, were forced 
to abdicate. Fearing for their lives they took refuge in 
Holland. In the different states of Germany the kings, 
princes, and dukes were deposed, and republican govern- 
ments established. In Austria-Hungary somewhat similar 
changes had already taken place. The Czechs or Bohemians, 
who had been an independent people in the Middle Ages, 
joined with the Moravians and Slovaks to form the Czecho- 



THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR 561 

Slovak republic. The Jugo- or South Slavs joined with 
Serbia in forming a large state in southern Europe. Other 
subjects of Austria or Hungary — Italians, Roumanians, and 
Poles — joined their kindred in neighboring countries — 
Italy, Roumania, the Ukraine, or Poland — without waiting for 
the Peace Congress to decide their fate. 

Steps Toward Peace. — With the armistice of November n 
fighting ceased, but peace was not fully restored. The Ger- 
man ports were still blockaded, and that part of the country 
west of the Rhine was occupied by French, British, and Ameri- 
can troops. Many questions had to be decided before a 
treaty of peace could be made and all peoples could take up 
again their ordinary tasks. To talk over these questions a 
conference was called at Paris. The leading delegates who 
attended the conference were the prime 'ministers of France, 
Great Britain, and Italy, and the President of the United 
States. This was the first time an American president had 
visited a foreign land during his term of office. 

The three most important subjects before the conference 
were "reparation," new boundaries, and a league of nations. 
By the terms of the armistice the Germans had agreed to make 
"reparation," that is, pay for the ruin their armies had spread 
through Belgium and northern France. To do this would 
cost huge sums of money, and it was difficult to find out how 
much the Germans could pay and how long a time they should 
be allowed in which to pay it. Another difficult question was 
the new boundaries of Europe. The states which had been 
created or restored during the war, like Czechoslovakia and 
Poland, or those which were to receive additions of territory, 
like Serbia and Roumania, must have their new frontiers 
marked out. Indeed the whole map of Europe was to be 
redrawn. 

Not only must peace be made, but steps must be taken to 
guard against the outbreak of new wars. For this purpose 



562 THE REPUBLIC AND THE LARGER WORLD 

the victorious nations were to decide whether they would unite 
in a league, and whether they would share their task of main- 
taining peace with the peoples which had so recently been their 
enemies. 

America's New Tasks. — America had her special tasks. 
Her soldiers were eager to return. To bring them across the 
seas would require many months. Her industries, busied for 
a year and a half in producing instruments of war, must take 
up the work which had been pushed aside. Such changes 
also required time. But the wiser American leaders were not 
content to put everything back where it had been before the 
war. They desired to make their country more than ever a 
land of opportunity for all her sons and daughters. They 
talked about adding to our national domain by irrigating waste 
lands or draining marshes or clearing for the plow lands on 
which the forest trees had been cut. They proposed new 
methods of organizing industry in order that employer and 
employee should have a stronger common interest in the suc- 
cess of the enterprise. These are the pioneers of a new age. 

There is still another task. All have had a share in the 
government of our country, but many have been too eager to 
organize industries, or manage trade, or open mines, to do their 
full share as citizens of a self-governing nation. Without the 
help of all, the government of even a republic may fall into 
the hands of a few. The task here is one of "conservation," 
guarding the liberties won by men of past generations. It is 
also one of progress, that the life of cities may be more whole- 
some, that the rewards of work in city and country may be 
distributed more fairly, and that justice and brotherhood 
may be the watchword alike of city, state, and nation. 



THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR 563 

QUESTIONS 

1. What part did the American navy have in the war? 

2. How did the United States make a great army? 

3. How did the United States train the men for the new army? What 
organizations helped the officers in caring for the soldiers? What was done for 
the welfare of the men? 

4. What preparations were necessary in France? 

5. What part did the American people at home have in the European war? 
What part did the women and children take? 

6. How did the United States secure food, fuel, ships, and money for the 
war? 

7. Where did American soldiers have a large share in the fighting of the 
last year of the war? 

8. What changes in government took place in Germany and Austria- 
Hungary toward the end of the war? 

9. What were the terms of the armistice? 

10. What important questions were discussed at the Paris Peace Con- 
ference? 



EXERCISES 

1. Prepare from this chapter a list of the tasks of the United States in getting 
ready for the war. 

2. Secure pictures of the training camps. 

3. Obtain a story of the experience of a sailor on a merchant ship torpedoed 
by a German submarine. 

4. Secure one or more stories of the share of the American navy in the war. 
Also of American soldiers. 

5. Make a map locating the American battles in the war. 

Important Date: 

November n, 1918. The end of the World War. 



CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF AMERICAN 
POLITICAL HISTORY 

1776. The English colonies declared their independence of Great Britain, and 
at the same time took steps to secure aid from France, and to form a 
permanent union. 

1778. France formed an alliance with the united colonies, supplying them 
with money and assisting them further with her navy and army in the war 
against Great Britain for independence. 

1781. The Continental Congress had drawn up a constitution, the Articles 
of Confederation, and submitted it to the thirteen states. They adopted 
the new government which joined them together as the United States with 
a Congress as the chief organ of government. 

1783. Great Britain agreed to a treaty of peace with the United States and her 
ally, France, recognizing the independence of her former colonies and 
their union as the United States. 

1783-89. Period of the Confederation. The United States included a 
total area of 892,135 square miles. About 3,250,000 people lived in the 
new republic. Of these only a few thousand lived west of the mountains. 
One-fifth of the people of the United States were negro slaves. 

The states with western lands gave up most of them to the United 
States, to be used for the benefit of all the people. Congress adopted for 
these lands a system of surveying into townships, sections, and quarters, 
and began the practice of using a portion of the land for the support 
of education. In 1787, by the so-called "Ordinance of 1787," Congress 
adopted a form of government for its territories in the West, made promises 
about the admission of these into the Union, and other promises to the 
inhabitants about their rights. 

In 1787 a convention at Philadelphia framed a new Constitution for 
the United States. This Constitution gave the United States more power 
and created three branches of government — a Congress, a President, and 
a Supreme Court — in place of the one-house Congress of the Articles of 
Confederation. Eleven states adopted this, and, although North Carolina 
and Rhode Island did not yet do so, abandoned the old constitution 
for the new one. The new government was organized in March and 
April, 1789. 

1789-97. George Washington, First President. Under the new Constitu- 
tion it was the duty of men called electors to choose the President and 



ii CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF 

Vice-President. In some states the people chose the electors, in others 
the state legislatures chose them. The first body of electors voted unani- 
mously for General Washington of Virginia for President. They chose 
John Adams of Massachusetts Vice-President, though not by a unani- 
mous vote. Ten amendments guarding the rights of the people and 
the states were adopted in December, 1791. In 1792 Washington was 
again chosen President and John Adams Vice-President. While Wash- 
ington was President five states were admitted to the Union. These 
were North Carolina in 1789, Rhode Island in 1790, Vermont in 1791, 
Kentucky in 1792, and Tennessee in 1796, making at this time 16 states 
in the Republic. In 1790 the first census or count of the population was 
taken. It showed a total of almost 4,000,000 people in the United States. 
Of these about 110,000 lived west of the mountains. Out of every 100 
inhabitants three lived in cities. It required the greater part of Wash- 
ington's first term and much of his second to organize the new govern- 
ment and decide upon its policies. Two questions were the payment of 
state debts and the creation of a Bank of the United States. It was not 
long before his advisers and even the people as a whole were divided into 
two political parties over these questions. One party was called the Fed- 
eralist and the other the Democratic or Republican party. Washington 
preferred the views of the Federalists. Hamilton and Adams were the real 
leaders of the Federalists. Jefferson and Madison were the leaders of the 
Republicans. Washington refused to be a candidate for a third term. 

1797-1801. John Adams. The electors were closely divided between the 
Federalist candidate, John Adams, and the Republican, Thomas Jefferson 
of Virginia. Adams had a majority of three votes. In those days the 
one receiving the next number became Vice-President. An eleventh 
amendment on the powers of the Supreme Court was adopted in 1798. 
The Federalists had trouble with France, and were obliged to prepare for 
war. This led them to pass laws for heavy taxes and other laws like the 
Alien and Sedition Acts. Both kinds of laws were unpopular with the 
majority of the people. 

1801-09. Thomas Jefferson. In the election in 1800 the Republican 
electors had a clear majority. It happened, however, that their two 
candidates, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia and Aaron Burr of New York, 
had the same number of votes. The House of Representatives had to 
decide the question which of them should be President. It chose Thomas 
Jefferson. Burr became Vice-President. After this experience a twelfth 
amendment was passed in 1804, changing the method of voting for Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, so that the electors should vote separately for 
each. One new state, Ohio, was admitted in 1803. In the same year 
Jefferson purchased Louisiana for $15,000,000. As Louisiana had an area 
of 827,987 square miles, the cost was about three cents an acre. Jef- 
ferson was so popular that he obtained a great majority in the election in 



AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY iii 

1804. George Clinton of New York became Vice-President. Jefferson's 
last years as President were made unhappy by the troubles with England 
and France, and the necessity of taking measures to protect American 
rights and trade. Jefferson, like Washington, refused to be a candidate 
for a third term. He wished his Secretary of State, James Madison of 
Virginia, to succeed him as President, and such a wish counted with his 
Republican followers. 

1809-17. James Madison. Madison became President in 1809. The 
Republicans were still in a great majority over the Federalists. George 
Clinton was reelected Vice-President. The population of the country was 
increasing rapidly. In the census of 1800 it was 5,308,483. In the census 
of 1810 it was a third larger, or 7,239,881. Two years later, 1812, Louisi- 
ana was admitted as a state in the Union, making the eighteenth state. 

In June, 181 2, war was begun with England. An election occurred 
during the war. Madison was reelected President. Elbridge Gerry of 
Massachusetts was Vice-President. War measures formed the chief 
subject of laws until 1815. In 1816 a second Bank of the United States 
was chartered, and a new state, Indiana, taken into the Union. The 
Federalist party had nearly broken up, and in the election of this year 
was able to offer almost no opposition to the Republican candidate. 

1817-25. James Monroe. Monroe had been Madison's Secretary of State, 
and had the President's support in the election. Monroe, too, was from 
Virginia. It looked as though Virginia had a monopoly in furnishing 
Presidents. The new Vice-President was Daniel D. Tompkins of New 
York. Beginning with the admission of Indiana, in 1816, one new state 
was added each year for six years until there were altogether twenty-four 
states. The new ones were Mississippi in 1817, Illinois in 1818, Alabama 
in 1819, Maine in 1820, and Missouri in 182 1. First one from the South, 
and then one from the North, each time keeping the balance even. A 
great compromise upon slavery was made with the entrance of Maine 
and Missouri: this was that the remaining territory of the Louisiana 
Purchase should be divided; that the portion north of the line 36° 30' 
was never to allow slavery, while that south might. Monroe was reelected 
in 1820. His opponent received only one electoral vote. Tompkins 
was also again chosen Vice-President. In 1819 the United States pur- 
chased Florida — a territory of 72,101 square miles, but sparsely settled — 
from Spain for about $5,000,000. The census of 1820 showed that the 
population was 9,638,453, or about three times that of 1783. Now more 
than 2,250,000 people lived west of the Alleghany Mountains. The event 
of Monroe's administration most often remembered was the announce- 
ment in 1823 that the United States would oppose any effort of European 
countries either to establish any new colonies in North or South America 
or any interference with the freedom of the states already formed there.. 
This was the Monroe Doctrine. 



iv CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF 

1825-29. John Quincy Adams. When the election of 1824 came on the 
Federalist party had almost entirely disappeared. The Republican party 
was divided into several factions, each supporting its favored leader. The 
vote for Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams was very close. Neither 
had a majority of all the votes cast for President. The House of Represen- 
tatives for a second time decided the question, electing Adams. He was 
a son of the second President, and, like his father, was from Massachusetts. 
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina became Vice-President. Adams had 
been Monroe's Secretary of State. He was greatly interested in maintain- 
ing the Monroe Doctrine and promoting the building of roads and 
canals. 

1829-37. Andrew Jackson. The friends of Andrew Jackson thought he had 
been cheated out of the Presidency in 1824, and bent every effort to secure 
his election in 1828. The Republicans gradually divided into two parties, 
the followers of Jackson and of Adams and Clay. Jackson was triumphant 
and Calhoun was again elected Vice-President. The followers of Jackson 
were coming to be known by their other name, Democrats, and began 
to drop the name Republicans. The followers of Adams took the name 
Whigs. In the election of 1832 the candidates for President were 
nominated, not as formerly by a caucus of the members of each party in 
Congress, but by a national convention of delegates from the states. 
Jackson was very popular with the people and was easily reelected. 
Martin Van Buren of New York became Vice-President. The census of 
1830 reported a population of 12,866,020. Two states, the 25th and 
the 26th, Arkansas in 1836 and Michigan in 1837, came in during Jack- 
son's administration. Jackson wished his party to make the Vice-President 
his successor as President, and his will prevailed. 

1837-41. Martin Van Buren. In 1836 the Democrats were again success- 
ful. Besides Van Buren as President, they chose Richard M. Johnson 
of Kentucky Vice-President. Van Buren's party was blamed for the 
panic of 1837, and so for the first time in over thirty years was defeated 
in the next election. 

1841-45. William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. The Whig candidates 
in 1840 were William Henry Harrison of Ohio for President, and John 
Tyler of Virginia for Vice-President. The census gave a population of 
17,069,453. Harrison died four weeks after he became President. Tyler 
at once became President, to serve out the term. Just before Tyler's term 
ended in 1845, it was decided to annex Texas. This was the addition of 
389,166 square miles of territory. Florida, which was admitted about 
the same time, and Texas made twenty-eight states in the Union. 

1845-49. James K. Polk. The Whig triumph was of short duration. In 
1845 the Democrats elected their candidate, James K. Polk of Tennessee 
President, and George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania Vice-President. The 
greater part of President Polk's single term as President was taken up with 



AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY v 

the trouble with Mexico which ended in war. Iowa was admitted in 
1846 and Wisconsin in 1848. These again made equal the number of 
states with slavery and those without slavery. By a treaty with Great 
Britain in 1846 the United States retained part of the Oregon Coun- 
try, 286,541 square miles. At the end of the Mexican War 529,189 square 
miles more territory were acquired. This included California and the 
territory from which Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and part of Colorado and 
New Mexico have been formed. In the treaty which ended the war and 
provided for the annexation of the southwestern region, the United 
States paid Mexico a little over $15,000,000. 

1849-50. Zachary Taylor. The Whigs were successful in the election of 
1848. They had named as their candidate one who had become a hero in 
the Mexican War, General Zachary Taylor of Louisiana. Millard Fill- 
more of New York was their candidate for Vice-President. President 
Taylor died in 1850, a year and four months after his term began. The 
Vice-President for the second time in American history became Presi- 
dent by the death of the President. 

1850-63. Millard Fillmore. In 1850 there were 23,191,876 people in the 
United States. The year 1850 was more important for the compromise 
made by Congress over the slavery question. The aim of one part of the 
Compromise was to please the North by the abolition of the slave trade 
in the District of Columbia, and another part to please the South by 
securing the return of fugitive slaves. By another part the territory 
lying between Texas and California was to have slavery or not, as the 
inhabitants should decide. By still another part California was admitted 
into the Union without slavery. Wisconsin had been admitted in 1848. 
There were now thirty-one states. Those without slavery outnumbered 
those with it. In 1853 the United States purchased a tract of territory, 
29,670 square miles, from Mexico, in order to round out the southern 
boundary. Mexico received $10,000,000. 

1853-57. Franklin Pierce. The Democrats regained power in the election 
of 1852. Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire became President, and 
William R. King of Alabama Vice-President. The repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise in 1854 and the appli cation of the rule that Kansas 
and Nebraska, like the Southwest, might have slaves if the inhabitants 
wished and so voted, led to the formation of a new political party. This 
party, the Republican, was bent on keeping the territories for free laborers 
rather than slaves. The Whig party, like the Federalist, gradually broke 
up; its members went over to one of the other parties, chiefly to the 
Republicans. This made it easy for the Democrats again to win in the 
election of 1856, in spite of the unpopularity in the North of the Kansas 
and Nebraska Act. 

1857-61. James Buchanan. The Democratic victor in the election of 1856 
was James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. The new Vice-President was 



vi CHRONOLOGICx\L SUMMARY OF 

John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Buchanan's term was taken up 
chiefly with the great dispute over slavery. One event after another 
arrayed the North and South against each other. The Dred Scott 
decision in 1857 and the John Brown Raid in 1859 were the most serious 
events in the growth of the trouble. In 1858 Minnesota was admitted, 
and the following year Oregon made the thirty-third state. The count 
of population just before the Civil War showed a total of 31,443,321. 
This was almost exactly ten times the number in 1783. Of the total 
population the slave-holding states had 12,240,000 people; 3,950,000 of 
these were slaves. The North had 19,201,546. The area of the fifteen 
slave-holding states was 882,245 and of the free states 824,622 square miles 
The greater part of the territories, however, could be counted as sure to 
become free states, and this made the area of the region opposed to 
slavery about double the area of that favorable to it. 

1861-65. Abraham Lincoln. The new, or Republican, party won in the 
election of i860, chiefly because the Democratic party was hopelessly 
divided over the slavery question. The Republican candidate for Presi- 
dent was Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, and for Vice-President Hannibal 
Hamlin of Maine. Just before Lincoln became President seven southern 
states seceded. Soon afterward four more united in a Southern Con- 
federacy. Almost the entire period of Lincoln's Presidency was occupied 
with the Civil War. Three new states were formed during the War. 
These were Kansas in 1861, West Virginia in 1863 (from the western part 
of Virginia), and Nevada in 1864. Lincoln was reelected for a second 
term in 1864. Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was at this time chosen 
Vice-President. One month and ten days after Lincoln began his second 
term he was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson became President. 

1866-69. Andrew Johnson. The new President and Congress quarreled 
over the manner of reorganizing the states which had seceded and of set- 
tling the questions which had arisen as a result of the war. Two amend- 
ments were quickly added to the Constitution. The 13 th amendment 
in 1865 forbade slavery within the United States. The 14th amendment 
in 1868 was intended, among other things, to prevent the states from 
abridging the rights of citizens whether white or black. In the same 
year Congress impeached President Johnson and so attempted to remove 
him from office. Nebraska joined the Union in 1867, and Alaska was 
purchased from Russia. The purchase of Alaska cost $7,200,000, and 
added 590,884 square miles of territory to the United States. 

1869-77. Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois became President in 1869, and Schuyler 
Colfax of Indiana Vice-President. They were elected by the Republi- 
cans. In 1870 the 15th amendment became a part of the Constitution. 
By this the states were forbidden to restrict the right to vote on the ground 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The United States 
now had a population of 38,558,371. Grant was reelected in 1872, 



AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY vii 

with Henry Wilson of Massachusetts Vice-President. Colorado was 
admitted in 1876. Congress throughout Grant's two terms was still 
much occupied with the questions which had grown out of the Civil War 
— reconstruction in the South and management of the national debt. 

1877-81. Rutherford B. Hayes. In the election of 1876 the Republicans 
put forward as candidates Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio for President, 
and William A. Wheeler of New York for Vice-President. The Republi- 
can candidates had only one electoral vote more than their opponents. 
In reality Samuel J. Tilden of New York and T. A. Hendricks of Indiana 
the Democratic candidates, had more votes of the people, and would 
have won if the people voted directly for President. The census of 1880 
gave the population of the United States as 50,155,783. 

1881-85. James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. In 1880 the Re- 
publicans had a larger vote than in 1876, though the contest between 
them and the Democrats was still close. James A. Garfield of Ohio 
and Chester A. Arthur of New York became President and Vice- 
President respectively. Garfield was shot by an assassin, July 2, 1881; 
he died September 19; and Arthur became President. One landmark in 
legislation of the period was the Act of 1883 requiring examination for 
many federal appointments. This was the Civil Service Reform Act. 

1885-89. Grover Cleveland. For the first time since the Civil War the 
Democratic party won in the election of 1884. Grover Cleveland of New 
York became President the next year, and Thomas A. Hendricks of 
Indiana Vice-President. In 1887 Congress passed the Interstate Com- 
merce Act for the regulation chiefly of railroad rates on commerce going 
from state to state. 

1889-93. Benjamin Harrison. The Democrats remained in power only 
one term. The Republican candidates in the election of 1888 were suc- 
cessful. They were Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, President, and Levi 
P. Morton of New York, Vice-President. In this case, as in that of 
Hayes, the majority of the electors voted for Harrison, but the majority 
of the people voted for his opponent, Grover Cleveland. The principal 
laws of the time were about the larger use of silver as money and about 
the tariff. Several new states were formed from the western territory — 
chiefly from the old Louisiana territory — North Dakota, South Dakota, 
Montana, and Washington in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming in 1890. 
The number brought the United States up to a total of forty-four states, 
where it remained until 1896. The total population in the census of 
1890 was 62,947,714. 

1893-97. Grover Cleveland. After four years out of the Presidency, 
Grover Cleveland returned as a result of the election in 1892. The 
Democratic party had again won. The new Vice-President was Adlai 
E. Stevenson of Illinois. One new state, Utah, was admitted in 1896 
while Cleveland was President. 



viii CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF 

1897-1901. William McKinley. In the election of 1896 it was the turn 
of the Republicans to win. Their candidates, William McKinley of 
Ohio and Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey, became President and Vice- 
President. In 1898 the United States was at war with Spain. During 
the war the Hawaiian Islands were annexed. They have an area, alto- 
gether, of 6,449 square miles. At the end of the war, by the treaty with 
Spain, Guam, Porto Rico, and the Philippines were acquired. Guam 
has an area of 210 square miles, Porto Rico of 3,435 square miles, and 
the Philippines 115,026 square miles. The United States paid Spain 
$20,000,000, but this amount in no sense represents the cost of the new 
possessions. The war with Spain cost the United States many times 
$20,000,000. In 1899 the Samoan Islands were divided between the 
United States and Germany. The United States was given six islands 
with an area of seventy-seven square miles. In the census of 1900 the 
United States was found to have a population of 75,994,575, not counting 
the island inhabitants. President McKinley was reelected in 1900. 
Theodore Roosevelt of New York became Vice-President. Six months 
after McKinley's second term began he was assassinated, and Roosevelt 
became President, to finish the term of three years and six months. 

1901-09. Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt completed McKinley's 
term, and in 1904 was elected President. Charles W. Fairbanks 
of Indiana was chosen Vice-President. The arrangement with Great 
Britain and Panama by which the United States acquired control of a 
zone ten miles wide across the Isthmus of Panama and the power to build 
a canal, was one of the most important events of the time. In 1902 the 
government began the work of irrigating parts of the deserts of the West. 
The passage of laws (1) to protect the people against impure foods, (2) 
to obtain more thorough railway rate regulation, and (3) to protect the 
nation's forests and streams from ruin, made the period an epoch in Amer- 
ican history. In 1907 Oklahoma became a state in the United States. 

1909-13. William H. Taet. In 1908 William H. Taft of Ohio, a Republican, 
was chosen President, and James S. Sherman of New York Vice-President. 
President Taft extended the plan of merit tests for many clerks and assis- 
tant postmasters in government service. The Republican party was, how- 
ever, so divided on the great questions of the day, tariff reform and 
caring for the country's natural resources, that few important laws were 
passed. Congress and the President, however, did agree on two mem- 
orable laws. By one in 191 1 a postal savings system was established; by 
another in 19 13 the post office was also authorized to carry parcels of a 
moderate weight. In 191 2 two states, formed from the territory obtained 
from Mexico in 1848, were admitted. These, New Mexico and Arizona, 
brought the total number of states to forty-eight. The population by the 
census of 1910 was 91,972,266, not including the island possessions. The 
area in square miles is about 3,617,673. 



AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY ix 

1913- . Woodrow Wilson. In the election of 19 12 the Republican party- 
was divided. The Convention renominated President Taft. Many 
Republican delegates joined with others in a Progressive party, which 
tried to elect former President Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson of New 
Jersey, whom the Democrats nominated for President, was chosen, with 
Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana for Vice-President. Just before Taft's 
term expired the announcement was made that a 16th amendment had 
become law. This gave Congress power to tax incomes. A few weeks 
after the inauguration of President Wilson a 17th amendment was added 
to the Constitution. It changed the method of electing the Senators 
of the United States, who had hitherto been selected by the state leg- 
islatures. Under the new plan the people vote directly for them as they 
do for the members of the House of Representatives. President Wilson's 
first work was an attempt to carry out his party's pledges. The most 
famous law for this purpose was a new tariff act which reduced the taxes 
on imports. In 1914 a Federal Reserve Bank system was established 
and steps taken to build a government railroad in Alaska. Within the 
same year the Panama Canal was practically completed. This was the 
year when a Great War began in Europe. The establishment of the 
Federal Farm Loan Banks and the re-election of President Wilson in 1916, 
the order of the President for the choice of postmasters for merit rather 
than for political services, and the entry of the United States into the 
European War because German submarines destroyed American merchant 
ships are events also to be remembered. 



POPULATION 

Population at the Beginning of the Period of Independence 
Entire United States 

1776 2,750,000 1790 3,929,214 

1783 3,250,000 

Population by States from First Census — 1790 

Connecticut 237,946 New York 340,120 

Delaware 59,096 North Carolina 393,751 

Georgia 82,548 Pennsylvania 434,373 

Kentucky,, 1 73,677 Rhode Island 68,825 

Maryland 319,728 South Carolina 249,073 

Massachusetts 378,787 Tennessee l 35,691 

Maine 1 96,540 Vermont 1 85,425 

New Hampshire 141,885 Virginia 747,610 

New Jersey 184,139 

Area and Population of the States and Territories of the 
United States 191c 

States Area in square miles Population in 1910 

Alabama 51,998 2,138,093 

Arizona 113,956 204,354 

Arkansas 53,335 1,574,449 

California 158,297 2,377,549 

Colorado 103,948 799,024 

Connecticut 4,965 1,114,756 

Delaware 2,370 202,322 

Florida 58,666 752,619 

Georgia 59,265 2,609,121 

Idaho 83,888 325,594 

Illinois 5 6 ,665 5,638,591 

Indiana 36,354 2,700,876 

Iowa 56,147 2,224,771 

Kansas 82,158 1,690,949 

Kentucky 40,598 2,289,905 

Louisiana 48,506 1,656,388 

Maine 33,040 742,371 

1 In 1790 these were only territories. 



STATES AND TERRITORIES xi 

States Area in square miles Population in 19 10 

Maryland 12,327 1,295,346 

Massachusetts 8,266 3,366,416 

Michigan 57,980 2,810,173 

Minnesota 84,682 2,075,708 

Mississippi 46,865 1,797,114 

Missouri 69,420 3, 2 93,335 

Montana 146,997 376,053 

Nebraska 77, 520 1,192,214 

Nevada 110,690 81,875 

New Hampshire 9,34* 430,572 

New Jersey 8,224 2 ,S37, I 67 

New Mexico 122,634 327,301 

New York 49,204 9,113,614 

North Carolina 52,426 2,206,287 

North Dakota 70,837 577,056 

Ohio 41,040 4,767,121 

Oklahoma 70,057 1,657, *55 

Oregon 96,699 672,765 

Pennsylvania 45,126 7,665,111 

Rhode Island 1,248 542,610 

South Carolina 30,989 1,515,400 

South Dakota 77,615 583,888 

Tennessee 42,022 2,184,789 

Texas 265,896 3,896,542 

Utah 84,990 373,351 

Vermont 9,564 355,956 

Virginia 42,627 2,061,612 

Washington 69,127 1,141,990 

West Virginia 24,170 1,221,119 

Wisconsin 56,066 2,333,860 

Wyoming 97,9*4 i45,9 6 5 

Territories Area in square miles Population in 19 10 

Alaska 590,884 64,356 

District of Columbia 70 331,069 

Guam 210 (Estimated) 9,000 

Hawaii 6,449 I 9 I ,9°9 

Panama Canal Zone 436 (Estimated) 50,000 

Philippine Islands 115,026 (Census of 1903) 7,635,426 

Porto Rico 3,435 1,118,012 

Samoa 77 (Estimated) 6,100 

Total of United States and 

its possessions 3,743,3o6 101,100,000 



Xll 



POPULATION 



Population of the United States by Races 
Census of 1910 

White 81,731,957 Chinese 7i,S3i 

Negro 9,827,763 Japanese 72,157 

Indian 265,683 All other 3,175 

Total population, not including island possessions 91,972,266 



Place of Birth of Present Population 
Census of 1910 



Born in the 

United States 78,456,380 

Foreign Countries 13,515,886 

Austria 1 1,174,973 

Belgium 49,4°° 

Canada — French .. 385,083 

Canada — Other . . . 819,554 

China 56,756 

Cuba and other West 

Indies 47,635 

Denmark 181,649 

England 877,719 

France 117,418 

Germany 1 2,501,333 

Greece 101,282 

Hungary 495,609 



Bom in 

Ireland 1,352,251 

Italy 1,343,125 

Japan 67,744 

Mexico 221,915 

Netherlands 1 20,063 

Norway 403,877 

Portugal . . . 59,360 

Russia and Finland l . . .. 1,732,462 

Scotland 261,076 

Spain 22,108 

Sweden 665,207 

Switzerland 124,848 

Turkey 9*,959 

Wales 82,488 

All other countries 158,992 



Cities of the United States with Population over 200,000 
Census of 19 10 



City Population 

Baltimore 558,485- 



Number over 10 
years unable to 
read and write 



Average number in 

the hundred of 
population unable 
to read atui write 



20,325 4.4 

Boston 670,585 24,468 4.4 

Buffalo 423,715 12,745 3.7 

Chicago 2,185,283 79,9 XI 4-5 

Cincinnati 3 6 3,59i 9,576 3.1 

Cleveland 560,663 20,676 4.6 

Denver 213,381 3,841 2.1 

Detroit 465,766 18,731 5- 

Indianapolis 233,650 5.874 3- 

* Poland counted under Austria, Germany, and Russia. 



RACES AND CITIES xiii 

Average number in 
Number over 10 the hundred of 

years unable to population unable 
City Population read and write to read and write 

Jersey City 267,779 11, 797 5.6 

Kansas City 248,381 4,937 2.3 

Los Angeles 319,198 5,258 1.9 

Louisville 223,928 9,886 5.3 

Milwaukee 373,857 10,765 3.6 

Minneapolis 301,408 6,139 2.4 

New Orleans 339,075 18,987 6.9 

New York 4,766,883 254,208 6.7 

Newark 347,469 16,553 6. 

Philadelphia 1,549,008 57, 700 4.6 

Pittsburgh 533,9°5 26,627 6.2 

Portland 207,214 2,145 1 - 2 

Providence 224,326 14,236 77 

Rochester 218,149 6,916 3.8 

■St. Louis 687,029 21,123 3.7 

St. Paul 214,744 3,751 2.1 

San Francisco 416,912 7,697 2.1 

Seattle 237,194 2,217 1.1 

Washington 331,069 13,812 4.9 



Population of Countries or Europe (Not including island colonies) 

Countries Area in square miles Popidation 

Austria-Hungary \ 261,035 49,4 I 8,596 

Belgium n,373 7,074,910 

Denmark 15,388 2,585,660 

England and Wales 58,575 36,075,269 

France 207,054 38,961,945 

Germany 208,830 64,903,423 

Ireland 3 2 ,373 4,381,951 

ItaI y 110,550 32,475,253 

Netherlands 12,648 5,898,429 

Portugal 3S,49o 5,423,132 

Russia (including Asiatic Russia) 8,647,657 160,095,200 

Scotland 30,443 4,759,521 

Spain 194,783 19,503,008 

Sweden 172,876 5,476,441 

Switzerland 15,976 3,741,971 



xiv PROGRESS AND WASTE 

Progress of Education 

Number in every iooo of population of principal countries over 12 years 
unable to read and write 

Country 1840 1890 1900 

Austria 790 450 310 

Belgium 550 200 120 

France 530 150 50 

Germany 180 40 10 

Great Britain 410 100 60 

Italy 840 530 440 

Netherlands 300 140 100 

Russia (in Europe) . . . .980 850 780 

Sweden 200 30 10 

Switzerland 200 50 10 

United States 200 130 100 1 



Waste or Wealth in the United States 2 

Waste in mining, preparation of minerals, 

and in their use $1,500,000,000 per day 

Forest fires destroy 50,000,000 of timber yearly 

Fires destroy 450,000,000 of property yearly 

Floods sweep away 500,000,000 of valuable top soil 

Sickness and death cost 3,000,000,000 yearly 

1 In igio this was 77. 

2 This amount includes not only direct waste, — for example, through careless mining, loss of 
by-products, or throwing away scrap-iron — -but also indirect waste, like using poorly constructed 
stoves and furnaces, and stoking fires improperly. For a discussion of all the items in the 
table, see E. L. Bogart, Economic History of the United States. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

In Congress, July 4, 1776 
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress 

Assembled 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people 
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and 
to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to 
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which 
impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure 
these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government 
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to 
abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that 
governments long established should not be changed for light and transient 
causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more dis- 
posed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing 
the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and 
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce 
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such 
government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has 
been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which 
constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of 
the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpa- 
tions, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over 
these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing im- 
portance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; 
and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts 

xv 



xvi DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in 
the legislature, — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, 
and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of 
fatiguing them into compliance with his measure. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly 
firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be 
elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned 
to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining, in the mean time, 
exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that pur- 
pose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass 
others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new 
appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to 
laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, 
and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers 
to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent 
of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the 
civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our 
constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts 
of pretended legislation: 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which 
they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent; 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses; 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, 
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, 
so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same 
absolute rule into these colonies; 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, 
fundamentally, the forms of our governments; 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with 
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and 
waging war against us. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 



XVll 



He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and de- 
stroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 
the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances 
of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally 
unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to 
bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and 
brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring 
on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known 
rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most 
humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated 
injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may 
define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We 
have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend 
an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the cir- 
cumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their 
native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of 
our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably 
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to 
the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the 
necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest 
of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General 
Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the recti- 
tude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people 
of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united colonies are, 
and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved 
from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection be- 
tween them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; 
and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other act? 
and things which independent states may of right do. And, for the support 
of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 



xvi DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in 
the legislature, — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, 
and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of 
fatiguing them into compliance with his measure. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly 
firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be 
elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned 
to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining, in the mean time, 
exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that pur- 
pose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass 
others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new 
appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to 
laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, 
and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers 
to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent 
of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the 
civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our 
constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts 
of pretended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which 
they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent; 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses; 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, 
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, 
so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same 
absolute rule into these colonies; 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable lavws, and altering, 
fundamentally, the forms of our governments; 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with 
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and 
waging war against us. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE xvii 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and de- 
stroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 
the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances 
of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally 
unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to 
bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and 
brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring 
on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known 
rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most 
humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated 
injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may 
define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We 
have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend 
an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the cir- 
cumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their 
native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of 
our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably 
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to 
the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the 
necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest 
of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General 
Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the recti- 
tude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people 
of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united colonies are, 
and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved 
from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection be- 
tween them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; 
and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other act? 
and things which independent states may of right do. And, for the support 
of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
of America. 

ARTICLE 1 

Section I. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress 
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Represent- 
atives. 

Sect. II. i. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members 
chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors 
in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most 
numerous branch of the State Legislature. 

2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the 
age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, 
and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he 
shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective 
numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free 
persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding 
Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration 
shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the 
United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner 
as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed 
one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representa- 
tive; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire 
shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Provi- 
dence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Penn- 
sylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, 
South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Execu- 
tive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other 
officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Sect. III. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xix 

Senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and 
each Senator shall have one vote. 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first 
election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The 
seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the 
second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the 
third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen 
every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation or otherwise, during 
the recess of the legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make 
temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall 
then fill such vacancies. 

3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of 
thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall 
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, 
but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro 
tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office 
of President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When 
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the Presi- 
dent of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside : and no person 
shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 

7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to 
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, 
trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall never- 
theless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, 
according to law. 

Sect. IV. 1. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators 
and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof; 
but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except 
as to the places of choosing Senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting 
shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint 
a different- day. 

Sect. V. 1. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns and 
qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a 
quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, 
and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such 
manner, and under such penalties, as each house may provide. 

2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members 
for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time 
publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; 



xx CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on any question shall, 
at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 

4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent 
of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that 
in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

Sect. VI. 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensa- 
tion for their services, to be ascertained by law and paid out of the treasury o f 
the United States. They shall in all cases except treason, felony and breach 
of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session 
of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and 
for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any 
other place. 

2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was 
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, 
which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been 
increased, during such time; and no person holding any office under the United 
States shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office. 

Sect. VII. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of 
Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as 
on other bills. 

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the 
Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the 
United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it with 
his objections to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter 
the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after 
such reconsideration two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it 
shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall 
likewise be reconsidered, and, if approved by two thirds of that house, it shall 
become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be deter- 
mined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against 
the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill 
shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after 
it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if 
he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, 
in which case it shall not be a law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of 
adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and 
before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved 
by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 

Sect. VIII. The Congress shall have power 

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts 
and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xxi 

but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United 
States; 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes; 

4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the 
subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix 
the standard of weights and measures; 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current 
coin of the United States; 

7. To establish post offices and post roads; 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited 
times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings 
and discoveries; 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas 
and offences against the law of nations; 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules 
concerning captures on land and water; 

12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use 
shall be for a longer term than two years; 

13. To provide and maintain a navy; 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval 
forces; 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, 
suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; 

16. To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for 
governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United 
States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and 
the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by 
Congress; 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such dis- 
trict (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, 
and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United 
States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent 
of the legislature of the State, in which the same shall be, for the erection of 
forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings; — and 

18. Tc make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 
execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitu- 
tion in the government of the United States, or in any department or office 
thereof. 

Sect. IX. 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 
States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the 



xxii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Congress prior to the year 1808; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such 
importation, not exceeding $10 for each person. 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless 
when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 

3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

4. No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to 
the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue 
to the ports of one State over those of another: nor shall vessels bound to, or 
from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 

7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of ap- 
propriations made by lirw; and a regular statement and account of the receipts 
and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. 

8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person 
holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of 
the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind 
whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Sect. X. 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; 
grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make 
anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill 
of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or 
grant any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or 
duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for 
executing its inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties and. imposts, 
laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of 
the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control 
of the Congress. 

3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, 
keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or com- 
pact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless 
actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II 

Section I. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the 
United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four 
years, and together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, 
be elected as follows: 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may 
direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Repre- 
sentatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no Senator 
or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United 
States, shall be appointed an elector 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xxiii 

[The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two 
persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with 
themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the 
number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to the President 
of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then 
be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the 
President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap- 
pointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an 
equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately 
choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, 
then from the five highest on the list the said house shall in like manner choose 
the President. But in choosing the President the votes shall be taken by 
States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this 
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, 
and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, 
after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes 
of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or 
more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the 
Vice-President.] 

3. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the 
day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same through- 
out the United States. 

4. No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, 
at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office 
of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not 
have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident 
within the United States. 

5. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death, resigna- 
tion, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same 
shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for 
the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and 
Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such 
officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall 
be elected. 

6. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensa- 
tion, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for 
which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period 
any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following 
oath or affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully 
execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my 
ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." 



xxiv CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Sect. II. i. The President shall be commander in chief of the army and 
navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called 
into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in 
writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any 
subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power 
to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except 
in cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he 
shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall 
appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme 
Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not 
herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the 
Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they 
think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of 
departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen 
during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at 
the end of their next session. 

Sect. III. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of 
the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures 
as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, 
convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between 
them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such 
time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public 
ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall 
commission all the officers of the United States. 

Sect. IV. The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United 
States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and on conviction 
of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III 

Section I. 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in 
one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may from time to 
time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior 
courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, 
receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during 
their continuance in office. 

Sect. II. 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, 
arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made 
or which shall be made, under their authority; — to all cases affecting ambassa- 
dors, other public ministers and consuls; — to all cases of admiralty jurisdic- 
tion; — to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; — to 
controversies between two or more States; — between a State and citizens of 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xxv 

another State; — between citizens of different States; — between citizens of 
the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a 
State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, 
and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have 
original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme 
Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such ex- 
ceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; 
and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been 
committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at 
such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Sect. III. 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying 
war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. 
No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses 
to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but 
no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except 
during the life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV 

Section I. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public 
acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress 
may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and 
proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Sect. II. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges 
and immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who 
shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the 
executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be 
removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, 
be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of 
the party to whom such service or labor may be due. 

Sect. III. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; 
but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other 
State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts 
of States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned as well 
as of the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the 
United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to 
prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 



xxvi CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Sect. IV. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union 
a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against in- 
vasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the 
legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, 
shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the 
legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for pro- 
posing amendments, which, in either case shall be valid to all intents and pur- 
poses, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three 
fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the 
one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided 
that no amendments which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight 
hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the 
ninth section of the first article; and that no State, without its consent, shall 
be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI 

i. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption 
of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this 
Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made 
in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the 
authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the 
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or 
laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members 
of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of 
the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirma- 
tion, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required 
as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the 
establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. 

Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present, the 
seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven 
hundred and eighty-seven and of the Independence of the United States of 
America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our 
names. 
[Signed by] G° Washington 

Presidt and Deputy from Virginia 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xxvii 

Articles in Addition to and Amendment of the Constitution of the 
United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified 
by the Legislatures of the Several States, Pursuant to the 
Fifth Article of the Original Constitution 1 

Article I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of 
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and 
to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

Article II. A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a 
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 

Article III. No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house 
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be 
prescribed by law. 

Article IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be 
violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by 
oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and 
the persons or things to be seized. 

Article V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise 
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury except 
in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual 
service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the 
same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled 
in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, 
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property 
be taken for public use without just compensation. 

Article VI. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right 
to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been 
previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of 
the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have 
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assist- 
ance of counsel for his defence. 

Article VII. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, 
than according to the rules of the common law. 

Article VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines 
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

Article IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall 
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

Article X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Con- 

1 The first ten Amendments were adopted in 1791. 



xxviii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

stitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respec- 
tively, or to the people. 

Article XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed 
to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one 
of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of 
any foreign state. [Adopted in 1798.] 

Article XII. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote 
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be 
an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their 
ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 
voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons 
voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of 
the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and 
transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to 
the President of the Senate; — the President of the Senate shall, in the pres- 
ence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and 
the votes shall then be counted; — the person having the greatest number of 
votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the 
whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then 
from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of 
those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose im- 
mediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes 
shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; 
a quorum for tins purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds 
of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. 
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever 
the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March 
next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the 
death or other constitutional disability of the President. — The person having 
the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if 
such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if 
no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the 
Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist 
of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whob 
number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible 
to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United 
States. [Adopted in 1804.] 

Article XIII. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly con- 
victed, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their juris- 
diction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. [Adopted in 1865.] 

Article XIV. Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xxix 

States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States 
and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law 
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; 
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due 
process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protec- 
tion of the laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States 
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons 
in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any 
election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the United 
States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a 
State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male 
inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the 
United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or 
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the propor- 
tion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of 
male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or 
Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, 
under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an 
oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a 
member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any 
State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in 
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies 
thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two thirds of each house, remove such 
disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized 
by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But 
neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obliga- 
tion incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any 
claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, 
and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legisla- 
tion the provisions of this article. [Adopted in 1867.] 

Article XV. Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote 
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appro- 
priate legislation. [Adopted in 1870.] 

Article XVI. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on 
incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the sev- 
eral States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. [Adopted in 1913.] 

Article XVII. Section 1. The Senate of the United States shall be com- 



xxx CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

posed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six 
years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall 
have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the 
State Legislatures. 

Section 2. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in 
the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election 
to fill such vacancies: Provided that the Legislature of any State may empower 
the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the 
vacancies by election as the Legislature may direct. 

Section 3. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election 
or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution. 
[Adopted in 1913.] 

Article XVIII. Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this 
article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, 
the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from, the United 
States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage pur- 
poses is hereby prohibited. 

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent 
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been 
ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the 
several States, as provided by the Constitution, within seven years from the 
date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. [Adopted 
in 1919.] 



INDEX 



Abolitionists, 340, 377, 381, 387. 420 

Acadia (a-ka/ di-a) , 99, 106, 156-157 

Adams, John, 193 (portrait), 195, 238, 
242; as President, 259-260, 263 

Adams, John Quincy, 295, 320; as Presi- 
dent, 326, 347 

Adams, Samuel, 169 (portrait), 171, 189, 
238 

Admiralty Courts, 145 

Aeroplanes, 471, 541 

Africa, 3, 348, 370 

Agricultural High Schools, 515, 516 

Agriculture, see Farming 

Alabama, 312, 313, 391, 441, 477, 481 

Alabama, cruiser, 407; Claims, 446 

Alaska, 349, 448, 485-486; area, Appen- 
dix, vi 

Albany, 24, 78; Congress, 154 

Alden, John, 51 

Alexander II, of Russia, 447-448 

Algonquin (al'-gon-kwin) Indians, 32- 

24 
Alien and Sedition Acts, 260, 263 
Alleghany Mountains (al'e-ga-ru), 28 
Allen, Ethan, 1S5 
Amendments, see Constitution 
America, discovery of, 4; origin of name, 

7; early explorations in, 8-14, 19, 22-24, 

33-35, 37-38 
American Federation of Labor, 494 
Americus Vespucius (a-mer' I-cus ves-pu- 

shus), 7 
Ancient Times, defined, 2 (Note) 
Anderson, Major Robert, 395, 396 
Andros, Sir Edmund, 143 (portrait) 
Antietam, battle of, 418 
Apaches (a-pii' chi), 456 
Appalachian Mountains, 27-2 S, 29, 37- 

38, 112, 401 
Appalachian Valley, 28, 402, 415 
Appomattox (ap' p6-mat'twks), 430 



Arbitration, in labor disputes, 496; inter- 
national, 529-31 

Architecture, colonial, 121 

Argentine Republic, 318 

Argonne Forest, 559 

Arizona, 435; as a state, 484, 488, 505, 506 

Arkansas, 9, 349; as a state, 381, 392, 
397, 423, 505 

Arkwright, Richard, 251 

Armada (ar-ma' da), 18 

Arnold, Benedict, 200, 216 

Arthur, C. A., app., vii 

Articles of Confederation, 194-195 

Ashburton Treaty, 352 

Astoria, 274 

Atlanta, 428-429, 478 

Augusta, Ga., 119, 335 

Austin, Moses and Stephen, 345-346 

Austria, 149, 153, 277-278; and Hungary, 
452, 532, 534, 560 

Automobile, 471 

Bacon, Nathaniel, 144 

Balboa (bal-bo' a) , 5-6 

Balkans, 532, 534 

Baltimore, 75, 157, 293-294, 335-336, 398, 

405, 473 
Baltimore, Lord (portrait), 71-75 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 335, 336, 363 
Bank notes, 337, 338, 421 
Bank of the United States, first, 245-246; 

second, 337~338 
Baptists, 136 

Barbados (bar-ba' doz) , 89, 98 
Battle-ship, defined, 153 
Batts, Captain Thomas, 37 
Beauregard (bo' rhg-gard), General, 4og 
Belgium, 537 

Bell, Alexander Graham, 464 
Bennington, battle of, 200 
Benton, Senator, 324, 351 



XXX11 



INDEX 



Berkeley, Sir William, 87, 144 

Berlin-Bagdad route, 532 

Bessemer, Henry, 466 

Bienville (be-an'vel), 108 

Birmingham, Ala., 477 

Blaine, James G., 508 

Blockades, 200-202, 405-406 

Blue Ridge Mountains, 28 

Bohemian immigration, 402 

Bolivar (bol' I-var), Simon, 318-319 

Bonaparte (bo' nd-part) , Napoleon, 260, 
266-268, 276-284; portrait, 279 

Boone, Daniel, 114, 208-209, 270 

Bosses, political, 500-501 

Boston, 61, 121, 137. 168, 169, 170-171, 
172-173, 181, 186-187, 336, 514 

Bowling Green, Ky., 403, 413, 414 

Braddock, General, 155 

Braddock's Road, 208 

Bradford, William, 51 

Bragg, General, 415 

Brandywine, battle of, 201 

Brazil, 531 

Breckinridge, J. C., 390, 391 

Brewster, William, 50-51 

Bridgeport, Conn., 473 

Brooklyn, 84, ig7 

Brotherhoods, Locomotive Engineers, Fire- 
men, Trainmen, 494 

Brown, John, 383, 387-388 

Brush, C. F., 465 

Bryan, William J., 509 

Buccaneers (buc'ca-neer), 88 

Buchanan (bu-kan' an), James, 3S6, 387, 

392. 393, 395. 397 
Buell, General, 414 
Buena Vista (bwa' na. vis-ta), battle of, 

356 
Buffalo, 303, 365, 461, 466 
Bulgarian immigration, 492 
Bull Run, battles of, 407-410, 418 
Bunker Hill, battle of, 183-184 
Burgoyne (bur-goin'), General, 199-200 
Burke, Edmund, 176 
Burnside, General, 418 
Burr, Aaron, 263 

Cabinet, President's, 242-243 
Cable, Atlantic, 464 



Cabot (kab' at), 12-13 

Cahokia (kd-ho' ki-d), 108 

Calhoun (kal-hoon), John C, 283, 325, 

331-332, 352. 378, 392; portrait, 331 
California, under Spanish rule, 226-227; 
annexation of, 352, 354-358; as a state, 
376, 378, 380, 454, 460, 486-487, 505, 
506 
Calvert, Cecil, 71 
Calvert, Leonard, 72 
Cambridge, Mass., 61, 64, 68 

Canada, under French rule, 22, 99-109; 
English conquest of, 149-159; under 
English rule, 159, 207, 226, 286-289, 
348-349; Dominion of, 448-50; North- 
west, 485 

Canning, George, 320 

Carnegie, Andrew, 530 

Carnegie Institution, 516 

Carolinas, 95, 107, 108, 136; see further, 
North and South Carolina 

Caroline, French Fort, 11, 410 

Carpet-Baggers, 441, 443 

Carson, Nev., 455 

Cartier (kar' ty a), Jacques, 12 

Cartwright, Edmund, 251, 252 

Carver, John, 52, 54 

Cass, Lewis, 377 

Catholics, see Roman Catholics 

Caucus, "King," 324, 325 

Centennial Exposition, 443-444, 472 

Central Pacific Railroad, 454-455 

Cervera (th?r-va' rii), 524 

Champlain (sham-plan), Samuel de, 19 
(portrait), 20, 22-23, 3 I_ 33 

Chancellorsville, battle of, 42 r 

Channing, W. E., 340 

Charles I, 59-60, 69-70, 71 

Charles II, 70, 83, 87, 90, 104 

Charleston, S.C., 96, 169, 173, 197, 
218, 219, 335, 395-397. 402, 403. 4°4, 
433 

Charlestown, Mass., 61, 187 

Charters, colonial, 142-143, 148 

( !hase, S. P., 379 

Chateau-Thierry, 558 

Chattanooga, Tenn., 402, 404, 414, 425, 
477 

Chesapeake, The, 281 



INDEX 



XXXlll 



Chicago, 34. 287, 303, 363. 364. 365, 
366, 458, 461, 468, 472, 491, 519- 
520 

Chicago University, 516 

Chickamauga (chik' d-mo' gd), battle of, 

425 

China, 361, 532; immigrants from, 454, 
492, 525 

Cibola (si bo Id), 10 

Cincinnati, 233, 303-304, 365. 45^ 

Cities, growth of, 98, 121, 491; govern- 
ment of, 503-504; planning, 507 

Civil Service Reform, 501-502 

Civil War, 395-431 

Claiborne, William, 73, 82 

Clark, George Rogers, 2 10-2 n 

Clark, William, 271-274 

Clay, Henry, 282-283, 286, 316, 326, 328, 
352, 378-379 (portrait) 

Clermont, The, 302 

Cleveland, 303, 307, 365, 366, 468 

Cleveland, Grover, 496, 508 (portrait), 
509, 525 

Clinton, De Witt, 306 

Clinton, George, app., iii 

Clinton, General Henry, 215-216, 217 

Clipper ships, 366-367 

Coal, 252-253, 298, 477, 485 

Colbert, 107 

Colfax, Schuyler, app., vi 

Colleges, 67-68, 133-134, 342-343, 516- 
518 

Colombia, United States of, 318 

Colonial architecture, 121 

Colonial system, old, 129, 164; new, 330, 
348, 532 

Colonies, British, see under names, Can- 
ada, etc. 

Colorado, 435; as a state, 460, 488, 505, 
506 

Columbia, S.C., 478 

Columbia River, 272 

Columbian Exposition, 472 

Columbus, 2-5 

Columbus, Ky., 413, 414 

Commerce, 82, 127-132, 161, 165, 206, 
235-236, 257-258, 267-268, 278-284; 
see app., xv 

Commercial High Schools, 515 



Commission plan of city government, 503- 
504 

Compromise of 1850, 378-380 

Conciliation, Boards of, 496 

Concord, battle of, 178-180 

Conestoga (con'-es to'-ga) wagons, 306 

Confederate States, 391-431 

Congregationalists, 62, 136 

Congress, Albany, 154; Stamp Act, 167; 
Continental, 174-175, 182, 189, 191, 
194, 195, 216, 230-237; first National, 
242 

Congress, Acts of, early 242-246; Alien 
and Sedition, 260; Embargo, 279; Non- 
Intercourse, 280; Tariff of 1816, 301; 
National Road, 305; Missouri Com- 
promise, 316; Tariff of 1833, 332; Com- 
promise of 1850, 378-379; Kansas and 
Nebraska Bill, 381-382; Homestead 
Act, 434-435; Reconstruction, 437-441; 
Civil Service Act, 502; Interstate Com- 
merce Act, 509 

Connecticut, colonial, 64-68, 128, 134, 
140, 143, 148; in the Revolution, 167, 
192-193; as a state, 231 

Conservation, 489-490, 533 

Constitution, formed, 239-241; amended, 
263, 438, 441, 507, app., xviii 

Constitution, The, 290-291 

Continental Congress, see Congress, Con- 
tinental 

Conventions, 324-325, 504 

Cooper, Peter, 335 

Cooperation, 497-498 

Corinth, Miss., 403, 414 

Cornell, Ezra, 366, 517 

Cornell University, 517 

Cornwallis, 198, 218-220 

Coronado (ko-ro-na' do), 10 

Correspondence, committees of, 171, 172 

Cortes (kor'-tez), 8 

Cotton, 122, 254-255, 297, 298, 372-373. 
406, 435-436, 475 

Cotton-gin, 254, 255 

Cotton-seed oil, 478 

Crockett, David, 347 

Cromwell, Oliver, 69 

Cuba, 4, 159, 319, 381, 522-524, 526 

Cumberland Gap, 208 



XXXIV 



INDEX 



Cumberland National Road, 304-305 
Cumberland River, 403, 414 
Curacao (koo' ra-so'), 88-89 
Curtis, George William, 502 
Custer, General, 456 

Dallas, G. M., app., v 

Dartmouth College, 134 

Davenport, John, 65 

Davis, Jefferson, 313-315, 379. 39i (por- 
trait), 392, 393 

Dearborn, Fort, 287 

Debt, public, 244, 421, 431 

Debtors, imprisonment of, 117, 340 

Declaration of Independence, 190-191 

Deerfield, Mass., 105-106 

Delaware, 81, 91, 97, 239, 241, 438 

Democratic party, 247, 328, 385, 386, 
387. 390, 39i, 420, 429, 442, 443, 508- 
5io 

Denver, 455 

De Soto (da so' to), Ferdinand, 8-1 1 

Detroit, 102, 103, 160, 209, 211, 229, 237, 
287, 2.89, 363, 36S, 366 

Dewey, Commodore George, 523 

Diaz (dee'ath), 3 

Dickinson, John, 195 (portrait) 

Dinwiddie, Governor, 152 

Dissenters, 89, 95 

District of Columbia, 244, 264, 380, 420 

Dollar, Spanish, 132, 231 

Donelson, Fort, 413, 414 

Douglas, Frederick, 438 

Douglas, Stephen A., 379, 384, 385-386, 
390, 397 

Drake, Francis, 13 

Dred Scott affair, 385, 386 

Dress, colonial, 137 

Duquesne (dii-kan'), Fort, 152, 155, 157, 
158 

Duquesne, Governor, 150, 151, 152 

Dutch, see New Netherland 

Dynamo, 464-465 

East India Companies, 18-19, 77-78, 

172-173 
East Liverpool, O., 473 
Ecuador, 318 



Eaton, Theophilus, 65. 

Education, colonial, 67-69, 133-134; 
national, 340-343; in South, 481; new, 
513-520. 

Edison, T. A., 465. 

Electoral College, 240, 259, 263. 

Electricity, 464-466. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 13-14, 21 

Emancipation, 418-420, 438 

Embargo, 279-280, 297 ■ 

Emigration, "great," 60, 69; to Virginia, 
87; to West Indies, 87-89; to Penn- 
sylvania, 91-92; second great, 97-98; 
German, Swiss, 111-112; Scotch-Irish, 
11 4- 115; see Immigration 

Employers' Association, 496-497 

Endicott, John, 60 

England, early ' explorations and settle- 
ments, 12-14, 21-22, 26; see under. Vir- 
ginia, Massachusetts, etc.; Civil War 
in, 69-70; struggle with the Dutch, 
77-85; struggle with France, 99, 103- 
108, 149-159; Revolution of 1688, 104- 
105; colonial policy, 127-131, 139-146; 
quarrel with American colonies, 164- 
176; Revolutionary War, 178-221; 
Industrial Revolution, 250-253; Trade 
disputes with U. S., 258-259, 276-284; 
war with France, 266, 268, 276-284; 
Oregon question, 274, 350, 352, 356; 
War of 1812, 286-295; American tariff, 
300-301; Monroe Doctrine, 320-321; 
suffrage in, 323, 329; new colonial pol- 
icy, 348-349; during American Civil 
War, 406-407, 419; Alabama Claims, 
446; recent reform in, 450-451; growth 
of colonies, 522; emigration to United 
States from, 532; in Great War, 537-560 

Episcopal church, 49, 89, 136 

Ericsson (er' ik-sSn), John, 416 

Erie, Lake, battle of, 288-289 

Erie, Pa., 150, 288 

Erie Canal, 306-307, 312, 335, 336, 

349 
Espafiola (Ss-p&n yo' la), 88 
Essex, The, 290, 291-292 
Evangeline, the poem, 157 
Exports, from the colonies, 127-132, 161; 

during Revolution, 206-207; from the 



INDEX 



XXXV 



United States, 235, 261, 278, 27Q, 458, 
461, app., xv 
Exposition, Centennial, 443-44; later, 472, 



Factory system, 252, 297, 463 

Fall River, Mass., 473 

Fallam, Robert, 37 

Falmouth, Me., 203 

Faneuil (fan' el) Hall, picture of, 141 

Farming, in the colonies, 123-125; in the 
South, 254, 372-374, 439, 475-477; 
recent progress, 461, 488-489, 498 

Farragut (far'a-gut), D. G., 415, 428 

Federal Convention, 238-240; see Con- 
stitution 

Federalist party, 247, 268, 292-293, 327 

Ferdinand VII, of Spain, 318, 319 

Fisheries, 132, 295 

Florida, 8, 116-117, 159, 221, 226; pur- 
chase of, 318 (area, app., iii) ; as a state, 
381, 391, 441, 476, 479, 480 

Foch, Ferdinand (fosh), 557, 559 

Forestry, 489-490 

Fox, Charles James, 176 

France, early explorations and settlements, 
12, 19-20, 26, 29, 31-38; in West Indies, 
88; in Acadia, Canada, and Mississippi 
Valley, 99-103, 108; struggles with 
the English, 103-108, 149-159; aid in 
Revolutionary War, 213-221; French 
Revolution, 255-256; American dis- 
putes with, 256-261; sale of Louisiana, 
266-268; Napoleonic wars, 276-284; 
Monroe Doctrine, 319-320; Revolu- 
tion of 1830, 329; Civil War in U. S., 
406; Mexican affair, 446-447; Third 
Republic, 45 1-45 2 ; new colonial empire, 
522; in Great War, 536-560 

Franklin, Benjamin, writings, 134-135; 
plan of union, 154; in France, 195, 213- 
214; portrait, 214; at the Federal Con- 
vention, 238 

Frederick the Great, 116, 149, 153 

Fredericksburg, battle of, 418 

Freedmen, 437-438 

Free Soil party, 377 

French and Indian War, 148-159 

French Revolution, 250, 255-256 



Friends, Society of, 94 
Frontenac (froN' te-nak'), Fort, 157 
Fruit farms, 486 
Fugitive Slave Law, 376-377 
Fulton, Robert, 302 

Fur trade, 57, 79, 81, 102-103, 119, 273, 
320, 349 

Gadsden Purchase, 358; map, 357; area, 

app., v 
Gage, General, 178, 181, 186 
Gallatin (gal' a -tin), Albert, 266 
Galveston, Tex., 479, 503 
Gama (ga' ma), Vasco da, 3 
Garfield, James A., 502 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 340, 377, 437 
Gas-engines, 470-471 
Gates, General, 200, 213, 218 
Genet (zheh-na'), 257 
George II, 117 
George III, 165 (portrait) 
Georgia, 117-119, 241, 254, 373, 391, 

441 
Germans, settlements of, 93-94, 111-113, 

115, 119; later immigration of, 310, 

37o 
Germantown, Pa., 93-94 
Germany, 112, 310, 370, 451, 532-560 
Gerry, Elbridge, app., iii 
Gettysburg, battle of, 421-423 
Girls, education of, 133, 343 
Gladstone, W. E., 446 
Gloversville, N.Y., 473 
Gold, discoveries of, 358-360, 435, 485 
Government, colonial, 139, 140, 142; 

reorganization during the Revolution, 

192-195; federal, 238-247; changes 

in Jackson's time, 323-328; recent 

changes, 500-510 
Grand Rapids, Mich., 478 
Grangers, 497-498 
Grant, U. S., 413-415, 423, 425-430, 442; 

portrait, 426 
Gray, Captain, 274 
Great Britain, see England 
Great Lakes, 33, 303, 365 
Greek, study of, 134 
Greek immigrants, 492 
Greeley, Horace, 368, 394 (portrait), 508 



XXXVI 



INDEX 



Greenbacks, 421 
Green Mountain Boys, 185, 200 
Greene, Nathaniel, 218-219 
Grenville, George, 164-165 
Guam (gwam), 524; area, app., viii 
Guerriere (gar-ry ar), The, 291 
Guilford Court House, battle of, 219 
Guthrie, Okl., 484. 

Hague Tribunal, 529-530 

Haiti (ha'ti), 88 

Half Moon, The, 23, 24, 33 

Hamilton, Alexander, 238, 242, 244, 245 

(portrait), 246-247, 263 
Hamlin, Hannibal, app., vi 
Hancock, General, 422-423 
Hanover, N.H., 134 
Hargreaves, James, 250-251 
Harper's Ferry, 387-388 
Harrison, Benjamin, 509 (portrait) 
Harrison, W. H, 282, 352 
Harrodsburg, Ky., 209 
Hartford, Ct., 65, 81 
Harvard Coliege, 68-69, I 33< I 7° 
Havana, 159, 523 
Hawaii (hii-wi' §), 361, 524. 5 2 5 
Hay, John, 532 

Hayes, R. B., 442 (portrait), 443, 502 
Hayne, Senator, 332 
Hendricks, T. A., app., vii 
Henry, Fort, 413, 414 
Henry, Patrick, 162, 167 (portrait), 189, 

210, 238 
Hessian soldiers, 197 
High Point, N.C., 478 
High Schools, 68, 342, 513-516 
Hobart, G. A., app., viii 
Holland, 49, 216, 221, 278 
Homestead Law, 384, 434-435 
Hooker, General, 425 
Hooker, Thomas, 64 
Hoover, Herbert C., 553 
Hopkins Grammar School, 69: Congress 
Houston, Sam, 347 
Howe, Elias, 369 
Howe, General, 184, 186, 196, 197, IQQ. 

200-201, 205, 215 
Hudson, Henry, 23-24, 32-33, 77 
Hudson Bay Company, 103-104, 349, 350 



Huguenot (hu' ge-n6t), 96 
Hull, Captain Isaac, 290-291 
Hull, General, 287 
Hungary, 452 

Iberville (e ber veT), 106-108 

Idaho, 274, 356, 434, 460, 487, 488, 506 

Illinois, under French rule, 108, 148; 
Clark's expedition to, 211; as a terri- 
tory, 248, 311, 312; as a state, 313, 337, 
342 

Immigration, see Emigration; after 1815, 
310, 311; after 1845, 369-371; alter 
Civil War, 433, 457, 485, 491-493; as 
a whole, 532 

Impeachment, 440 

Impressment of seamen, 280-283, 295 

Indentured servants, 43, m, 115 

Independence, Declaration of, 1 80-1 91 

Independents, see Separatists 

India, 2, 3, 5, 153, 164 

Indiana, Clark's expedition to, 211; as 
a territory, 248, 311, 312; as a state, 
313. 323, 342, 47o 

Indian Territory, 457, 483, 484 

Indians, Champlain and, 29-32; attack 
Virginians, 47; in New England, 54- 
56, 63-64, 66-67; in Maryland, 72; in 
New Netherland, 79-80; in Pennsyl- 
vania, 94; missionaries to, 101-102; as 
allies, 104-106; in French and Indian 
War, 154-155; in Pontiac's War, 160; 
in Kentucky and Tennessee, 209-210; 
Spanish missions among, 226-228; 
Wayne's victory over, 247-248; in 
Louisiana Territory, 271-273; fight at 
Tippecanoe, 282; Creek, 318; recent 
wars with, 456; become citizens, 483 

Industries, colonial, 125-129; during 
Revolution, 205-206; development of, 
250-255, 297-300, 367-369, 434; recent, 
463-474, 475-480, 485-490, 491-498 

Initiative, 505 

Internal Improvements, 301-302, 305, 306 

Interstate Commerce Act, 509 

Inventions, 250-255, 365-369, 464 

Iowa, 343, 349, 370, 381, 457 

Ireland, 310, 370 

Iron, 128, 252-253, 298, 467-469, 477 



INDEX 



XXXVll 



Iroquois (ir-6-kwoi'), 3°, 3i> 32, 104, 154 
Italy, 452, 492, 532, 539 

Jackson, Andrew, victory at New Orleans, 
294; and Creeks, 318; Presidency, 325- 
328, 331-332, 337-339, 347; portrait, 
325 

Jackson, "Stonewall," 409, 417, 421 

Jamaica, 89 

James I, 20, 21, 22, 48, 59 

James II, 83, 84, 103-104, 113, 143 

Jamestown, Va., 21-22, 40-44; fair at, 
481 

Japan, 361; laborers of, 492, 525 

Jay, John, 243, 258-259 (portrait) 

Jefferson, Thomas, in the Revolution, 
191, 195; in France, 238; in the 
Cabinet, 242, 244; founder of Demo- 
cratic party, 246-247; Vice-President, 
259-260; Presidency, 263-274, 276- 
282; founds University of Virginia, 343 

Jesuit missions, 101-102 

Johns Hopkins University, 516 

Johnson, Andrew, 437 (portrait), 439-441 

Johnson, R. M., app., iv 

Johnston, A. S., 414 

Johnston, J. E., 409, 410, 417 

Joliet (zho' le-a.') , Louis, 34 

Jones, John Paul, 217 (portrait) 

Jugo-Slavs, 534, 562 

Jumonville (zhti' mon' veT), 152 

Jury, trial by, 47 

Kansas, io, 272; struggle in, 381-384; 
as a state, 470, 484, 506 

Kansas City, 350, 458, 461 

Kansas and Nebraska Bill, 381-382 

Kaskas' ki4, 108, 211 

Kearny (kar' ni), General, 356 

Kentucky, settlement of, 209, 211, 234; 
Mississippi question in, 236; admitted 
to Union, 248; Resolutions of, 260; as 
a state, 312, 314, 315, 323; in Civil War, 
408, 413, 414, 415; slavery in, 438 

Key West, 480 

King, W. R., app., v 

King William's War, 105 

King's Mountain, battle of, 218 

Knights of Labor, 494 



Knox, Henry, 243 
Knoxville, Tenn., 402, 477 
Kosciuszko, 215 
Ku Klux Klan (ku kluks), 442 

Labor Unions, 493-495 

Lafayette (la' fa' yeV), 214, 219, 256, 329 

Lake Champlain, battle of, 289-290 

Lake Erie, battle of, 288-289 

Lands, Public, 232, 312, 434-435. 458 

La Salle (la sal'), 34-35, *°7 

Lawrence, Kas., 383 

Laws, see Acts 

Lee, R. E., 397~398, 410, 417-418, 421- 
423, 427-430 

Legislatures, colonial, 46, 57, 66, 74, 84, 
139-142, 166; state, 193-194 

Leland Stanford University, 516 

Lewis, Meriwether, 271-274 

Lexington, battle of, 178-180 

Leyden (li'den), 49-5° 

Liberal Republican Party, 508 

Liberty Loans, 555 

Libraries, colonial, 47, 68; traveling, 518 

Lincoln, Abraham, youth of, 3i3 _ 3 I 4I 
candidate for Senate, 385-386; Presi- 
dency, 390, 393, 395-397, 398, 405, 4*8- 
420, 426, 429-431, 436, 437, 439. 

Linotype, 470 

Lithuanian immigrants, 492 

Locomotives, early, 334-336 

Longfellow, H. W., 157 

Long Island, 80, 127 

Lookout Mountain, battle of, 452 

Los Angeles, 227, 505 

Louis XIV, 103, 104 

Louis XVI, 213, 214, 255, 256 

Louisburg, 157 

Louisiana, named, 35; under French rule, 
108; Spanish, 159, 236, 259; Purchase 
of, 266-274; admitted to Union, 313; 
slavery in, 316; in Civil War, 391, 415, 
423 ; industry in, 476-477 

Louisville, Ky., 234, 303 

Lowell, Francis, 29 

Lowell, J. R., 380 

Loyalists, 191-192, 207, 218, 286 

Lumber trade, early, 129, 131 

Lundy's Lane, battle of, 288 



XXXV111 



INDEX 



Lusitania, 544 
Lynn, Mass., 61, 128 
Lyon, Mary, .343 (portrait) 

Macdonough, Commander, 289-200 

Machine tools, 469 

Mackinac, 102, 237, 287 

Madison, James, during Revolution, 195; 
in Philadelphia Convention, 238-239 
(portrait); Presidency, 276, 282-284 

Magellan, Ferdinand, 2, 6-7 

Magyar (Hungarian) immigrants, 492 

Maine, settlement of, 99; admitted to 
Union, 316; boundary dispute, 333; 
adopts Initiative, 505 

Maine, The, 523 

Manassas Junction, 403, 409 

Manhattan Island, 78; see New York City 

Manila, 159, 523, 524 

Manitoba, 485 

Mann, Horace, 340-341 (portrait) 

Manual Training High Schools, 515 

Marconi, 465 

Maria Theresa, 149, 153 

Marietta, 233 

Marion, Francis, 218 

Marae, battles on, 538, 558 

Marquette (mar ket'), 33-34, 102 

Marshall, T. R., app., ix 

Martinique (mar' tin-neekO, 88 

Maryland, founding of, 71-75; trade of, 
129; religion in, 136; government of, 
140, 144; in French and Indian War, 
156; attitude toward state land claims, 
231; gives District of Columbia, 264; 
slavery in, 373, 438; in Civil War, 398 

Mason and Slidell, 406 

Massachusetts, settlement of, 24, 40-57, 
59-62; Indian raids, 105-106; colonial 
industries, 126, 128; education, 133; 
government, 140, 141, 142, 143; land 
claims, 148, 231; resists parliament, 
167, 170-174; in the Revolution, 178- 
187, 193; Shays' Rebellion, 234-235; 
ratifies Constitution, 242; in 1812 War, 
293; slavery in, 316; boundary dispute, 
333; early railroads of, 336; reforms 
in, 340-341; shoe trade, 372; soldiers in 
Civil War, 397; education in, 514, 517 



Massachusetts Agricultural College, 517; 

Institute of Technology, 517 
Massachusetts Bay Company, 60 
Massasoit, 55 
Maximilian, Emperor, 447 
Mayflower, The, 51 

McClellan, G. B., 408, 410, 415-418, 429 
McCormick, Cyrus, 367-368 
McDowell, General, 409, 417 
McKinley, William, 509 (portrait), 522, 

523 
Meade, General, 422-423, 426 
Meat trade, 304, 458 
Memphis, Tenn., 402, 403, 414 
Menendez (ma-neh deth), n 
Mennonites, 111-112 
Merrimac, The, 415-417 
Mexico, conquest of, 8; missions of, 226- 

227; independence of, 319; war with, 

345-348, 354-358; Maximilian in, 446- 

447 
Michigan, territory, 248, 287, 289, 342; 

as a state, 381, 467 
Michigan Central Railroad, 363 
Middle Ages, denned, 2 
Miles, General, 524 
Milwaukee, 303, 366 
Mining, 487; see also Gold 
Minneapolis, 461 
Minnesota, 363, 457, 467; admitted to 

Union, app., vi 
Mint, U. S., 245 
Minute-men, 178 
Missionary Ridge, battle of, 425 
Missions, Spanish, 11-12, 226-227, 345> 

354; French, 33, 101 
Mississippi, as a state, 312, 313; secedes, 

391; Reconstruction in, 441 
Mississippi River, 9, 34-35, 236, 259, 266- 

268, 403, 414-415, 423 
Missouri, explorations in, 270, 271, 312; 

admitted to Union, 316-318; early 

trade of, 349; in Kansas struggle, 383; 

in Civil War, 398, 407-408; slavery in, 

438; adopts Initiative, 505 
Missouri Compromise, 316-318, 382, 385 
Mobile, Ala., 108, 428 
Mohawk River, 28, 81 
Molasses Act, see Sugar Act 



INDEX 



XXXIX 



Money, 132, 231, 441 
Monitor, The, 415-417 
Monmouth, battle of, 216 
Monroe, James, 320 
Monroe Doctrine, 320, 447 
Montana, 271, 435, 460, 487, 488, 505 
Montcalm, 158-159 
Monterey, battle of, 356 
Montgomery, Ala., 391 
Montreal, 22, 103, 159 
Moravians, 116 
Mormons, 360, 460, 488 
Morse, S. F. B., 365-366 
Morton, L. P., app., vii 
Mount Holyoke Seminary, 343 
Mount Vernon, 222 
Moyne, Pierre le, 106-108 
Murfreesboro, battle of, 415 

Napoleon I, 260, 266-268, 276-284, 318 

Napoleon III, 446-447, 451 

Nashville, 376, 403, 414, 429 

National Association of Manufacturers, 
497 

National Farmers' Alliance, 498 

National (Cumberland) Road, 304-305 

Natural gas, 470, 477 

Naturalization, 116, 258, 281 

Naval stores, 129 

Navigation Acts, 82, 131, 145, 165 

Nebraska, 381-384, 457, 460, app., vi 

Needham, James, 38 

Nelson, Lord, 266, 277 (portrait) 

Netherland, New, 23-24, 77-85 

Nevada, 435, 460, 505 

New Amsterdam, 24, 77, 80, 83-84 

Newcastle, Pa., 114 

New England, beginnings of, 49-69; early 
trade of, 129, 130; local government in, 
140, 143; attitude toward War oi 1812, 
280, 292-293; recent industries of, 
463 

New Hampshire, 68, 134 

New Haven, 65, 66, 67, 69 

New Jersey, beginnings of, 84, 97; edu- 
cation in, 134; ^religion, 136; under 
Andros, 143; in the Revolution, 203; 
in Philadelphia Convention, 240, 241; 
slavery in, 254; industries of, 463 



New Mexico, 226, 376, 378, 380, 382, 484, 
489. 505 

New Orleans, 108, 159, 259, 268, 294, 298, 
303, 304. 365, 4i5, 479, S°4 

Newport, R.I., 64, 203, 216 

New York, colonial, 24, 77, 78-85, 97-98, 
128, 140, 142, 143, 148; in the Revolu- 
tion, 167, 189, 191, 199-200, 203; land 
claims, 231; and the new Constitu- 
tion, 239, 242; Erie Canal, 306-307; 
railroads of, 336-337; industry in, 463; 
adopts Civil Service Reform, 502-503; 
education in, 517 

New York City, 80, 98, 121, 134, 167, 168, 
!69, 173, 187, 196-197, 215, 220, 229, 
307, 49i, 501. S°3 

Newspapers, 134, 229, 368-369 

Nonconformists, 50-60 

North Carolina, colonial, 97, 112, 114, 
115, 129, 140, 144, 148,; in Revo- 
lution, 218-219; and the Constitu- 
tion, 242 (app., ii) ; University of, 
342; slavery in, 373, 392; in the Civil 
War, 410, 430; later events in, 478, 479 

North Dakota, 271, 457, 460 

Northwest Territory, 231-233, 248 

Nova Scotia, 156, 207, 348 

Oberlin College, 343 

Ogden, Utah, 455 

Oglethorpe, James, n 7-1 19 

Ohio, under French rule, 140-158; as 
an Indian territory, 160; settlement of, 
208, 232-234, 247-248; admitted to 
Union, 248; as a state, 307, 323, 342, 
470, 505 

Ohio Company, first, 150, 151; of 1787, 
232-233 

Oil, discovery of, 434, 477 

Oklahoma, 272, 470, 483-484, 505 

Omaha, 455, 458, 461, 473 

Ordinance of 1787, 232 

Oregon, explorations in, 273-274; ques- 
tion of, 295; claimed by Russia, 320; 
Hudson Bay Company in, 349, 350; 
American settlers in, 351, 352; annexed, 
356; admitted to Union, 376; recent 
events in, 486-487, 505, 506 

Otis, James, 162, 167 



xl 



INDEX 



Pacific Ocean, 5-6 

Paine, Thomas, 190 

Panama Canal, 527-529 

Pan-American Conference, 531 

Panic of 1837. 338; of 1873, 456 

Paper money, 205, 337, 338, 421 

Parkman, Francis, 351 

Parliament, English, 46, 50-60, 104, 127, 
141, 165; Acts of, Sugar Act, 131-132; 
Sugar Act of 1764, 166; Stamp Act, 
166-167; Townshend Acts, 169; Intoler- 
able Acts, 174; Quebec Act, 174; Re- 
form Acts, 329, 450 

Parson's Cause, 162 

Parties, see under party names 

Pastorius, 94 

Patroons, 78-79 

Penn, William, 90-95 (with portrait) 

Pennsylvania, settlement of, 90-95, 97; 
Germans in, 113; Scotch-Irish in, 114- 
115; education in, 134; colonial govern- 
ment, 140; struggle with French, 148, 
156; Indian war, 160; resists Stamp 
Act, 167; during Revolution, 197, 200- 
201, 203-204, 215-216; slavery in, 254; 
early railroads, 335, 336, 337, 363; 
recent industries of, 463, 470 

Perry, 0. H., 288 

Pershing, General John J., 553 

Petroleum discovered, 434 

Philadelphia, 96-97, 113, 121, 134, 168, 
173, 200-201, 203, 238, 335, 363, 443, 
473, 49i, 503 

Philadelphia Convention, 238-240 

Philippine Islands, 159, 319, 524, 525-526, 
532 

Phonograph, 470 

Pickens, Andrew, 218 

Pickett, General, 422-423 

Pierce, Franklin, app., v 

Pike, Zebulon, 27^2-273 

Pilgrims, 40-58 

Pitt, William, 157-162, 168, 176 

Pittsburg Landing, battle of, 414 

Pittsburgh, 149, 151, 158, 298, 303, 363, 
468, 495 

Pizarro (pe-zar' ro), 8 

Plantations, early, 43, 124, 125; spread of, 
254, 314, 373; failure of system, 439, 475 



Playground movement, 519-520 

Plymouth, 40-58, 67 

Pocahontas, 41 

Polish immigrants, 492 

Tolk, James K., 352, 354~358 

Polo, Marco, 2 

Pontiac's War, 160 

Pony Express, 435 

Poor Richard's Almanac, 135 

Population, of early Virginia, 47, 87; of 
Plymouth, 57; by 1700, 97-98; by 1750, 
hi; by 1783, 225; see appendix for 
census reports of 1790, etc.; at opening 
of Civil War, 400-401; later increase, 
433; make up of present, 532 

Port Royal, Acadia, 19, 99, 106 

Port Royal, S.C., 410 

Porter, Captain D. D., 291-292 

Portland, Ore., 472 

Porto Rico, 319, 524; area, app., viii 

Post Office, 229, 242, 366 

Presbyterians, 89, 136 

Prescott, Colonel William, 183-184 

Presidency, 239, 240, 241, 263, 324-325 

Princeton, battle of, 198 

Princeton College, 134 

Printing, in the colonies, 134-135; rotary 
press, 368 

Privateers, 206, 217 

Protection, see Tariff 

Providence, R.I., 64, 134, 297 

Prussia, 149, 153, 451 

Pulaski, 215 

Pullman, 111., 495-496 

Puritans, 59-60, 62, 74, 87, 90, 137 

Putnam, Israel, 174, 181 

Quakers, 89, 90, 91, 111-112, 137, 191, 

394 
Quartering Act, 169 
Quebec, 22, 158-159, 186, 199; see under 

Canada 
Quebec Act, 174 
Queen Anne's War, 105-106 

Railroads, 334-337. 363-364. 400, 401- 

402, 403, 409, 454-456, 485 
Raleigh (raw' It), Sir Walter, 13-14, 20 
Ranches, 457-458 



INDEX 



xli 



Randolph, John, 283 
Recall, 505-506 
Reconstruction, 439-443 
Redemptioners, 112, 11 5-1 16 
Reed, Major Walter, 526 
Referendum, 505 
Religious liberty, 265,324 
Representative system, 166, 329 
Republican party, 384, 386, 387, 390, 391, 

429, 442, 443, 508-510 
Reservations, Indian, 456, 483 
Revere, Paul, 178, 179 

Rhode Island, settlement of, 63-64, 66; 
early education in, 134; religion, 136; 
colonial government of, 140, 143; in 
Revolution, 192-193; paper money of, 
235; and the Constitution, 242, app., ii; 
factories in, 297 
Rice, cultivation of, 125, 476-477 
Richmond, Va., 44, 397, 402, 404, 427, 

430, 433. 465, 481 
Roads, 228, 304-305 
Robertson, James, 209 
Robinson, John, 50 

Rochambeau (ro shoN' boO, Count de, 

219-220 
Rockefeller Institution, 516 
Rolfe, John, 45 
Roman Catholics, 71, 74, 101-102, 136, 

226-227 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 510, 524, 530 
Roosevelt dam, 488-489 
Rough Riders, 524 
Russia, 153, 277-278, 282, 284. 319-321, 

447-448. 529. 536, 547. 556 

Sacramento, Cal., 358, 455 

St. Augustine, 10 

St. Lawrence River, 12 

St. Louis, Mo., 270, 272, 303, 349, 363, 

398, 413, 458, 472 
St. Mary's, Md., 72 
St. Paul, Minn., 461, 504 
Salem, Mass., 61, 136-137 
Salt Lake, Utah, 455 
Samoan Islands, app., viii 
San Diego, Cal., 226 
San Francisco, 226, 355, 360 , 
San Martin, General, 318-319 
Santa F€, 350 



Santiago (san-te-a go), 524 
Santo Domingo, 88, 266-267 
Saratoga, battle of, 200 
Savannah, Ga., 118, 218, 2ig, 429 
' Scalawags," 441 
Schenectady, 81, 105 
Schools, in Virginia, 47; in New England, 

67-69; colonial, 133-134; later, 340- 

343, 481, 513-520, 526 
Schurz, Carl, 370, 502 
Schuyler (ski'ler), General, 200 
Scotch immigration, 113-114, 119, 136 
Scott, Dred, 385 
Scott, General W.,288, 357 
Seattle, Wash., 486 
Secession, 332, 391 
Senate, 239, 240, 241, 506-507 
Separatists, 49, 62 
Serbians, immigration of, 492; war 

against, 534, 536, 540, 561 
Servants, indentured, 43, 115-116 
Seven Years' War, 153, 159 
Seward, W. H., 379, 390, 394, 448 
Sewing machines, 369 
Shatter, General, 524 
Shays' Rebellion, 234 
Shenandoah Valley, 113, 402, 417, 427- 

428 
Sheridan, General, 428, 429 
Sherman, J. S., app., viii 
Sherman, General W. T., 425, 426, 428, 

429. 43o 
Shiloh, battle of, 414 
Shoe and Leather trade, 128 
Short ballot, 504 
Siberia, 319-320 
Sioux, 456 
Sitting Bull, 456 
Slater, Samuel, 253, 254 
Slavery, 12, 43, 47, 119, 254-255, 315, 346, 

372-374, 376-388, 418-420, 438 
Smith, Captain John, 22, 41-42 (portrait), 

52, 53 
Smuggling, 131, 160-161, 172-173 
South, 122, 331, 371-374, 39°, 435-443, 

464, 475-48i 
South America, 318-321 
South Carolina, colonial, 97, 115, 117, 

118, 122, 125, 144, 148, 167, 168, 173; 

in Revolution, 207, 218-219; Nulli- 



xlii 



INDEX 



fication in, 332-333; first railroad in, 
335 ; slavery in, 373; in the Civil War, 
391, 430; after the War, 441 

South Dakota, 460, 505 

Spain, discoveries and exploration of, 
3-12, 18, 21, 26, 88-89, 116; colonial 
policy of, 146; losses in Seven Years' 
War, 159; missions in California, 226- 
22 8, 354; gives up Louisiana, 266- 
268; loses American colonies, 318-321; 
war with, 522-524 

Spice Islands, 2, 77 

Spinning, 126, 250-252, 253, 299 

Spoils System, 327, 500 

Springfield, Mass., 65, 206, 235 

" Squatter Sovereignty," 377 

Stage-coaches, 228, 305-306 

Standish, Miles, 51, 54 

Stark, John, 181, 200 

Stamp Act, 165-169 

States, organization of, 193-194 

Staunton, Va., 504 

Steamboats, 302-303, 366-367, 467-468 

Steam-engine, 251-252 

Steel, 128, 466-467, 469 

Stephens, A. H., 379, 391 

Stephenson, George, 334-335 

Steuben, Baron, 215 

Stevens, Thaddeus, 439-440 

Stowe, Harriet B., 381 

Strikes, 339, 495-496 

Stuyvesant (sti' ve s^nt), Peter, 83-84 
(portrait) 

Submarines, 543, 549 

Suffrage, 65, 323, 506 

Sugar Acts, 131-132, 145, 161, 165, 166 

Sumner, Charles, 379, 439-440, 446 

Sumter, Fort, 395-397 

Sumter, Thomas, 218 

Supreme Court, 239, 240 

Swedes, settlement by, 81 

Tacoma, Wash., 486 
Taft, W. H., 502, 510, 530-S31 
Taney, Chief Justice, 385 
Tariff, early, 244-245; of 1816, 300-301; 
of 1828 and 1833, 331-333; recent, 509 
Taxation, 131, 165, 244-245, 331-333, 421 
Taylor, Zachary, 355-356, 378, 379, 380 
Tea, tax on, 1 71-173 



Technical High Schools, 515 

Tecumseh (te-kum' se), 282, 287 

Telegraph, 365-366, 435, 464, 465 

Telephone, 464 

Tenement question, 493 

Tennessee, settlement of, 209; admitted 
to Union, 248; as • state, 315, 323, 326; 
secedes, 392, 397; in the Civil War, 
398, 414-415, 425; Reconstruction of, 
437; industry in, 476 

Tennessee River, 209, 403, 404, 414 

Territories of the United States, North- 
west, 231-233; Louisiana, 264-274; 
Florida, 318; Oregon, 34Q-352, 35°; 
California, 356, 358-360; New Mexico, 
358; Alaska, 447-448, 485 

Texas, 36, 226; independence of, 345-348, 
352; annexation of, 354-356, 358; in 
Civil War, 423; industry in, 476-477 

Thanksgiving Day, 55, 56, 61 

Thomas, General G. H., 425, 429 

Threshing machines, 124, 368 

Ticonderoga, 185 

Tilden, S. J., 443 

Tippecanoe, battle of, 282, 287 

Tobacco, 45-46, 124, 130, 132, 162, 206- 
207 

Toleration Act, 74 

Tompkins, D. D., app., hi 

Topeka, Kas., 383 

Tories, 191-192 

Toronto, 289 

Town meeting, 140 

Townshend Acts, 169-170 

Trade, see Commerce, Fur Trade 

Trade Unions, 339, 493-496 

Trafalgar, battle of, 277 

Treaties, Utrecht (1713), 106; Paris 
(1763), 159; Paris (1783), 221; Jay's, 
258; Ghent (1814), 294; with Mexico, 
358 

Trent affair, 407 

Trenton, battle of, 197 

Troy, N.Y., 473 

Trusts, 472-473 

Turnpikes, 304 

Tuskeegee Institute, 481 

Tweed Ring, 501 

Tyler, John, 3S2 

Typewriter, 470 



INDEX 



xlili 



Uncle Tom's Cabin, 381 

Underground Railroad, 38 o 

Union Pacific Railroad, 454-4SS 

United Brethren, 116 

Universities, 342-343, 516-518 

Utah, 360, 378, 380, 460, 488, 505, 506 

Valley Forge, 204 

Van Buren, Martin, 331, 340, 348, 377 

Van Rensselaer, 79 

Vanderbilt, " Commodore," 472 

Venezuela, 318 

Vermont, 248, 323 

Vespucius, Americus, 7 

Veto, 141, 239 

Vicksburg, 403, 423 

Victoria, Queen, 407 

Vincennes, 211 

Virginia, settlement of, 14, 20-22, 39-47, 
87; Bacon's rebellion, 144; colonial 
industry in, 128, 129, 130; education 
in, 133; religion, 136, 265; conflict 
with French, 148, 150, 152-153, 154, 
156; resists Stamp Act, 167; during 
Revolution, 172, 203, 219-220; land 
claims of, 231; ratifies Constitution, 
242; debts of, 244; Resolutions of, 
260; gives land for capital, 264; Uni- 
versity of, 265, 343; slavery in, 265, 
373; secedes, 392, 397; seat of War, 
402, 407-410, 416-418, 427-428, 430; 
after War, 436, 478, 481 

Virgin Islands, purchase of, 530 

Vote, right to, 65, 323, 506 

Wales, immigrants from, 92, 532 

Wampum, 55 

Warren, Joseph, 178 

Washington, state of, 274, 356, 460, 486- 
487, 506 

Washington, D.C., 244-245, 263-264, 293 

Washington, Booker T., 481 

Washington, George, ancestors of, 87; in 
Ohio, 1 51-152; in French and Indian 
War, 155-156, 157; resists parliamen- 
tary measures, 169, 174; commander- 
in-chief, 183, 184-185; captures Boston, 
186-187; later campaigns, 196-199, 
200-201, 204, 219-220; between 1783 



and 1789, 222, 230, 234, 238; Presi- 
dency, 242-248, 256-259; interest in 
a National Road, 305, 308; portraits 
185- 243 

Water power, 479, 488-489 

Waterbury, Ct., 206, 473 

Watt, James, 251-252 

Wayne, Anthony, 248 

Weaving, 126-127, 250-252, 299 

Webster, Daniel, 328, 332, 352, 378-379 

Welland Canal, 349 

Wellington, Duke of, 286 

West Indies, 77-78, 87, 131, 161, 206, 215 
235, 257, 261, 266-267, 278, 526, 527 
S29 

West Point, 216, 404 

West Virginia, 398, 408, 470 

Western Reserve, 231 

Whale fishery, 132 

Wheeler, W. A., app., vii 

Wheeling, W.Va., 234, 305, 363 

Whig party, 328, 378, 384-385 

Whiskey Rebellion, 245 

White, Father, 72 

Whitney, Eh, 254 

Wilderness, battle of, 427 

Willard, Emma, 343 

William and Mary, king and queen of 
England, 104-105; college, 134 

Williams, Roger, 63, 64, 74 

Will's Creek, 150 

Wilson, Henry, app., vii 

Wilson, James, 238, 240 

Wilson, Woodrow, 510, 546, app. ix 

Winthrop, John, 60 (portrait), 61 

Wisconsin, 370-371, 381, 515-516, 5i« 

Witchcraft, 136-137 

Wolfe, James, 158-159 

Woman Suffrage, 506 

Woolen Act, 127 

Writs of Assistance, 161-162 

Wyoming, state, 460, 487, 488, 506 

Wyoming Massacre, 210 

Yale College, 134- 
Yellow fever, 526 
Yorktown, capture of, 220 

Zuni (zo' nye) Indians r 10, 29, 30 




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